Biometrics to soon enable paperless air travel in India, SITA executive says

Paperless air travel could soon be implemented in India, with 70 percent of passengers in India reporting they would definitely use biometrics to replace a passport or boarding card at the airport, according to SITA research reported by India-West.

SITA Vice President for the Indian Subcontinent, Eastern and Southern Africa, Maneesh Jaikrishna told the Indo-Asian News Service that the level of support is much higher than the 57 percent global average. He said that Aadhaar and SITA’s Smart Path technology could provide efficient and secure travel through airports.

He also recently told the Air Transport IT Summit that the company’s technology will be deployed at the Multimodal International Hub Airport in Nagpur, and that paperless travel would soon be realized in the country. The Nagpur deployment includes Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) and Common Use Self Service (CUSS) solutions enabling any airline to any desk agent, gate, or self-service kiosk for passenger check-in and bag drop, as well as baggage tracking.

Jaikrishna said the Airport Authority of India has chosen three airports at which to implement the government’s Digiyatra digital air travel initiative, which includes a biometric access system for the passenger boarding process.

SITA recently deployed biometric Automated Border Control kiosks at three airports in Mexico, and was recognized with an Aviation Technology Achievement award at Air Transport World 2018 for its work with JetBlue and U.S. Customs and Border Protection on biometric self-boarding.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometrics  |  passenger processing  |  SITA