India’s biometric-based airport travel platform Digi Yatra has crossed 10 crore passenger journeys, marking a major milestone in the country’s push towards digital aviation infrastructure as air traffic continues to rise rapidly.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday said the app, which enables paperless and contactless travel through facial recognition technology, has recorded over 2.4 crore downloads across Android and iOS platforms and is currently operational at 38 airports across the country.
Officials said the platform has significantly reduced passenger processing time at airport entry points, cutting average verification time from nearly 15 seconds to about five seconds per passenger. The ministry said the faster processing has helped reduce congestion at terminals and eased pressure on airport infrastructure amid rising passenger traffic.
The platform has also reduced reliance on physical boarding passes, helping cut paper consumption across airports on a daily basis.
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said the milestone reflects increasing passenger trust in seamless and paperless travel systems at a time when India’s aviation sector is witnessing rapid expansion.
He pointed out that daily domestic passenger traffic, which remained below two lakh passengers in 2014, has crossed the five-lakh mark on multiple occasions over the past three years. According to government projections, annual passenger traffic across Indian airports is expected to touch 50 crore by 2030 and nearly double to around 100 crore by 2040.
“To manage this growth effectively, multiple digital interventions are being introduced across the aviation ecosystem,” Naidu said, listing initiatives such as Digi Yatra, self-baggage drop facilities, upgraded air traffic control automation systems, the AirSewa grievance portal and AI-powered digital twins aimed at improving airport operations.
Highlighting India’s position in aviation technology adoption, the minister said several countries are still evaluating large-scale biometric processing systems, while India has already operationalised and expanded Digi Yatra in a relatively short period.
The government plans to expand the platform to 27 more airports over the next year. Upcoming greenfield airports at Navi Mumbai, Jewar and Bhogapuram will also be fully integrated with Digi Yatra systems from the beginning, he added.
Naidu also said the platform is being made more inclusive through language expansion. Currently available in 11 languages, Digi Yatra is expected to support 22 regional languages by the end of the year.
On privacy concerns surrounding biometric systems, the ministry said the platform follows a privacy-by-design framework, where passenger data remains encrypted and stored only on users’ devices, while information shared with airports remains limited to short-duration verification requirements.