Digi Yatra Foundation Transforms Passenger Processes at Airports Across India with Digi Yatra Mobile App on AWS

India’s Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) was founded in February 2019 with a clear mission: to give airline passengers a fully contactless, seamless process. “The airport boarding process can be frustrating and time consuming, with many checkpoints along the way,” says Suresh Khadakbhavi, CEO at Digi Yatra Foundation. “We wanted to provide air travelers an easy, ‘walk-in-the-park’ experience, from airport entry gates to the boarding gate.”

To this end, India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and DYF enacted the Digi Yatra policy, an initiative to adopt a biometric boarding system using single-token face biometrics. The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem is based on World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). “The Ministry of Civil Aviation wanted us to create a new standard operating process for passengers at all airports across India,” Khadakbhavi says. “We decided that a privacy-preserving ecosystem with a mobile app-based enrolment deployed on the cloud would be the best solution.” Additionally, MoCA wanted DYF to develop the new solution as quickly as possible, so it could be rolled out at multiple airports.

DYF designed and developed the Digi Yatra mobile app on Amazon Web Services (AWS), using Amazon Cognito, a secure, frictionless customer identity and access management service that scales to authenticate passengers with an access token. This feature signs in users by sending them an SMS message through Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) with a one-time verification code. Following this step, passengers are required to utilize their Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identification number, for an Aadhaar ID validation process. This can be done by using either direct Aadhaar validation or the Digi Locker Aadhaar e-Know Your Customer (KYC) document. Once the e-KYC document is received, the face biometric is extracted by the Digi Yatra App and the passenger is prompted to take and upload a selfie. This selfie image is matched with the e-KYC reference face, and the ID credentials are created. The sign-in process triggers functions on AWS Lambda, a serverless, event-driven compute service that manages generation and verification of the user’s verifiable credentials. Khadakbhavi states, “The system operates as a paperless, contactless solution, where the passenger's face effectively transforms into the boarding pass. The selfie serves as the single token throughout the entire boarding journey.”

The Digi Yatra app has a seamless API integration with Digi Locker to fetch the Aadhaar e-KYC data. All collected data is encrypted and securely stored on the passenger's smartphone in a wallet as verifiable credentials. Upon completing this step, travelers only need to upload their boarding pass, which can be done by scanning or uploading a PDF or image of the boarding pass. They can then share their ID and travel credentials with their departure airport. Once this process is completed, passengers receive an updated digital boarding pass on the home screen of the app, which is directly shared with the departure airport verifier node.

For regulatory reasons, passengers’ credentials are stored at the departure airport verifier node for a short period of time after the boarding process and flight departure. This data is purged from the system within 24 hours after flight departure. The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem and the Digi Yatra apps are built on the fundamental tenets of “privacy by design” that empower passengers to take charge of their own personally identifiable information.

The Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem and its apps were first launched at New Delhi, Bangalore, and Varanasi airports on 1 December 2022, followed by Vijayawada, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Pune airports in April 2023. Most recently, the app became available at six additional airports: Kochi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai. Today, the Digi Yatra app has over 4.5 million active users.

With the Digi Yatra app on AWS, passengers at airports throughout India enjoy a seamless digital boarding process that outpaces traditional paper-based systems. “Passengers were previously required to present their identity and travel documents at multiple touchpoints—a cumbersome process,” says Khadakbhavi. “Now, travelers can easily share their ID and travel credentials with the departure airport well in advance of their travel, arriving at the airport with a ‘ready to fly’ status. At the airport, travelers simply open the app and scan the QR code at the airport entry e-gate. Instantly, the app retrieves their credentials, including face biometric and boarding pass data. Their live face is then captured and matched with the shared ID face, while the validation of the travel document itself occurs seamlessly in the background with the airline Departure Control System.” 

This streamlined digital process significantly reduces wait times at airport entry gates. “Each step of the traditional entry process can take up to 15 seconds, but that’s reduced to around 5 seconds with the Digi Yatra service,” says Khadakbhavi.

The Digi Yatra service also bolsters security by eliminating the potential for manual errors and offers further benefits in terms of data analysis for airports and airlines. Khadakbhavi states, "Now, airport operators have access to tactical information to align their resources and enhance passenger processing times, a crucial tool for improving on-time performance and overall operational efficiency."

DYF is currently expanding the Digi Yatra app services to include customers from the larger travel, transportation, and hospitality industries. Khadakbhavi explains, "Our idea is to turn this into a global app that offers an all-in-one solution for customers. We see customers using the app for flight check-ins and boarding, and then easily checking into hotels using a simple and seamless process for completing their ID validation. With the help of AWS, we're focused on making identity checks as smooth, seamless, and privacy preserving as possible."