AirAsia India Joins Bangalore International Airport Limited to Improve Contactless Procedures for Guests

Bangalore International Airport Limited’s (BIAL) ambitious DigiYatra project — a fully biometric-based self-boarding solution for seamless flow from registration to boarding — just got bigger and better with Air Asia India joining the digital journey.  In an endeavour to further improve contactless and safe procedures for its guests, AirAsia India announced the adoption of BIAL’s biometric journey at 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.

DigiYatra is an industry-led initiative by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, wherein guests may automatically be processed based on facial biometric systems at checkpoints like Entry Point, Entry into Security and Aircraft Boarding.

Speaking about this, Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran, MD & CEO, AirAsia India, said “The implementation of biometric recognition systems is quickly proving essential to enable safe, convenient and contactless travel experiences. 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.”

“At BLR Airport, we have been following stringent safety and hygiene protocols and we believe that the tech-enabled biometric journey, is another step towards healthy, secure and hassle-free travel. 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. BIAL continues to leverage technology to make travel seamless across customer touchpoints. We are committed to offering innovative ways to simplify the passenger journey, while maintaining the highest standards of safety, security and privacy,” Mr. Hari Marar, MD & CEO, BIAL.

In November 2018, AirAsia India, in collaboration with BLR Airport launched the self-bag-drop facility, enhancing self-service options to minimise wait time at counters, to offer a seamless travel experience for their guests.

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. In addition, the passenger data is deleted within a few hours of flight completion.

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 centers. 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.

Vision-Box’s award-winning platform Orchestra is the enterprise solution behind the end-to-end Seamless Flow experience.  The platform deployed at BLR Airport was conceived from inception according to Privacy by Design principles. Orchestra is yet the only identity management platform in the world that is certified in Privacy by Design, achieved in close partnership with the subject matter experts’ team of the Privacy by Design Centre of Excellence of the Ryerson University, Toronto (CA).  The technology platform meets legal and regulatory requirements of data privacy and security and respects passenger privacy.  The Orchestra platform is equally 100% compliant with European Union General Protection Data Regulation (GDPR) Law, which adopts Privacy by Design principles. The GDPR primarily aims to give control back to citizens over their personal data. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.

The four-step process of biometric registration:

Step 1: Register for Digi Yatra using Registration Kiosks located at the Kerb

Step 2: Proceed to Terminal Departure Entry e-Gates, scan your boarding pass and match your face

Step 3: At Security Check, validate your credentials by allowing the camera to scan your biometrics  

Step 4: Scan your face for validation and board your flight