Facial recognition entry to airport from April

PUNE: A seamless check-in awaits flyers at the city airport with the authorities ready to roll out the biometric boarding system from April.


The system will enhance passenger movement at the airport through facial recognition under the civil aviation ministry’s DigiYatra programme.

The document of the ministry’s “Vision 2040”, which was unveiled on Tuesday at the inauguration of the two-day Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai, states that the pilot implementation of the project will be carried out at the Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports by February-end.

“The project will be rolled out at the Pune, Kolkata, Varanasi and Vijayawada airports by April. Preparations are on and we are expecting a trial run before the actual launch of the facility. We will, however, not stop the practice in place for entering the airport and going through the security checks,” an airport official told TOI.

The system will be similar during the security check. There will be no need of showing and stamping boarding passes after frisking. The boarding passes and flight details of the flyers registered in the facial recognition system would also be integrated.

“The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has given its in-principle nod to the project,” another airport official said.

“Vision 2040” aims at having 1.12 billion air passengers in 2040 from 187 million in 2018 in the country. The Pune airport is among the busiest ones managed by the Airports Authority of India with an 8 million footfall a day.

In near future, sources said, the airport could also have automated baggage drop machines. In November last year, the Bengaluru airport authorities pressed into service the machines to make check-ins faster.

“It will be interesting to see how the authorities implement the system at the Pune airport. New systems are always welcome as the flyers benefit for them in the long run,” said Sunil Garg, a frequent flyer.