Low-cost carrier AirAsia has joined Bangalore International Airport Ltd’s (BIAL’s) ambitious DigiYatra project – a fully biometric-based self-boarding solution for seamless flow from registration to boarding. The airline has announced the adoption in its endeavour to further improve contactless and safe procedures for its guests at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB or BLR Airport).
The Vision-Box developed and installed One-ID biometric platform technology, launched in July 2019 for Vistara flights, is now enabled for AirAsia India flights from BLR Airport.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, AirAsia India Ltd is a joint venture between Tata Sons Private Limited and AirAsia Investment Ltd.
DigiYatra is an industry-led initiative by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), wherein guests may automatically be processed based on facial biometric systems at checkpoints like entry, security check and boarding.
Speaking about the initiative, Sunil Bhaskaran, Managing Director & CEO, AirAsia India, said, “To enable enhanced safety and security for our guests, AirAsia India has collaborated with BLR Airport for the implementation of the DigiYatra facility. DigiYatra services are another step in our continuous focus on leveraging technology to redefine the new norms of travel with emergent solutions that alleviate the guest experience and enable social distancing.”
“This project will continue the process of transforming passenger journeys – unleashing the power of the country’s first all-biometric flow operation, where your face is your boarding pass.,” said Hari Marar, Managing Director & CEO, BIAL.
In November 2018, AirAsia India, in collaboration with BLR Airport launched the self-bag-drop facility, enhancing self-service options to minimise waiting time at counters.
By growing the footprint of DigiYatra at BLR Airport, AirAsia India and BLR Airport have raised the bar in providing a fully automated experience to guests. AirAsia India guests travelling from BLR Airport, can now avail this facility without presenting travel documents at every touch point by simply enrolling their facial biometric and ID card validation at one of the 11 kiosks at the kerb, combined with their flight details, before entering the terminal. As they travel through the airport, passengers can put their travel documents and ID cards away, as they will be authenticated and verified at every touchpoint by state-of-the-art biometric technology.
This process offers the highest degree of safety and security while ensuring stringent standards of privacy. The biometric data is used only for authentication and verification of passengers to assist the boarding process and not for recognition.
The facility will be optional for passengers as they can choose either to register for Digi Yatra or go through the existing manual process.
The Vision-Box developed and installed Digi Yatra biometric platform technology offers highest data protection as passenger info is temporarily stored in secured systems in dedicated data centres. The biometric data is used only for authentication and verification of passengers to assist the boarding process and not for recognition. The passenger data is deleted within a few hours of flight completion.