How Digi Yatra is Fixing Airport Travel Without the Privacy Trade-off
Air travel in India can be a bit of a mess; for that matter, any travel in India is a mess. Long queues, slow security checks, and endless ID verifications. But Digi Yatra has been pushing to change the game. Backed by facial recognition tech that actually respects your privacy (though some may claim otherwise), the system is quietly making airport travel smoother, faster, and safer. And it’s being steered by Suresh Khadakbhavi, CEO of Digi Yatra Foundation, who’s been at it since day one, and several years before that while working at the Bangalore International Airport, heading the innovation and laying the foundation for Digi Yatra. Started two years ago, Digi Yatra is a digital initiative led by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in India aimed at streamlining the passenger experience at airports. It allows travellers to upload their photo on the app along with the boarding pass for a hassle-free and quick entry into the airport and security checks. Naturally, privacy critics have questions—and so do travellers. Digi Yatra’s answer is Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). It’s a fancy way of saying: your data stays with you. “Validation can happen right on your device. No central authority needs to get involved,” Khadakbhavi told AIM in an exclusive interview, saying that they do not even have access to the data of the passengers. Validation is Given by the Users It all started back in 2017 with a pilot at the Bangalore airport. Initially, Aadhaar was the go-to for identity checks. Then they switched it up—a one-time Aadhaar check, followed by a selfie-based system. “Pramod Verma loved it. He said this was the best use case for Aadhaar,” Khadakbhavi recalled. With Nandan Nilekani’s backing, the Digi Yatra Foundation officially came into being in August 2019. But then, COVID hit. Everything slowed down. Eventually, things picked up again, thanks to discussions with IATA’s One ID initiative. That’s when the team embraced decentralisation more seriously. Once Aadhaar was on board with this new approach, Nilekani later advised that the team needed a dedicated vehicle to build, operate, and maintain this system. He pointed to a similar model — Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL), which manages toll collection for NHAI as a not-for-profit. Taking inspiration, Khadakbhavi set up the Digi Yatra Foundation in August 2019. The policy had been rolled out earlier, in August 2018. Then came the task of selecting a vendor to build the Digi Yatra ecosystem. “We floated a global RFP, selected a partner, and were about to place the order — when the pandemic hit. That put everything on hold. Our shareholders — Airports Authority of India (26%) and the remaining 74% equally shared by five major PPP airports — told us there was no traffic and their cash flows were impacted. They couldn’t invest in a new solution under those circumstances,” he said. Several Indian startups helped build the platform on top of open-source solutions like Hyperledger, and on December 1, the service launched at the Delhi, Bangalore, and Varanasi airports. “People saw the difference right away—getting to the boarding area in five minutes flat,” said Khadakbhavi. Digi Yatra is operational in 24 airports in India and scaling quicker than ever. Issues and Rumours There were murmurs online about whether the software itself was glitchy. Khadakbhavi shut that down fast. Digi Yatra only uses top-shelf, NIST-approved algorithms from companies like NEC, Neurotech, Thales, and Idemia. To make sure no one can fool the system with a photo or screen, Digi Yatra uses advanced liveness detection. “You can’t trick it. It needs real human presence and depth,” he said. Currently, the platform is hosted on AWS, and there are plans to be cloud agnostic in the next 6-12 months. “All that data is stored in SQLite database in your phone, which eventually gets purged within 24 hours after the travel,” Khadakbhavi said allaying the fears around privacy. Every day around 25,000 new users register on the app. Khadakbhavi said the team consists of less than 10 employees, and the infrastructure is only running on 10-15% capacity right now. “We are already ready to scale to 130 airports soon.” One of the earliest issues they ran into was bad lighting. You know those gate areas where sunlight blinds you at just the wrong angle? That’s a nightmare for face scanners. So the team fixed it with a simple, smart setup: cameras mounted on rotatable arms that can be tilted depending on the lighting. They even added little physical shields around the cameras to cut out the glare. There’s also the human problem at play. While crowding at airport gates is common, it interferes with facial recognition technology. ‘DigiBuddies’ help guide passengers, making sure everyone approaches the gate one at a time. Interestingly, the software isn’t tied to any specific hardware. “We didn’t want vendor lock-in. This way, we can source from multiple providers and keep costs low and open competition,” Khadakbhavi said. All the systems adhere to global standards—ISO for face recognition, IATA’s rules for boarding passes, and even gate speeds are regulated to avoid accidents. Not-for-Profit, Not Slowing Down Digi Yatra isn’t trying to make money. It’s a not-for-profit with a bigger mission: to build what Khadakbhavi calls the “travel stack of India.” In the future, hotels and other entities could join in, too. Imagine walking into a hotel, scanning a QR code, confirming your face, and heading straight to your room—no IDs, no delays. Global expansion is also on the roadmap, with discussions with European countries. Once things are stable at home, the team wants to roll out internationally. Instead of Aadhaar, you’d scan your passport’s MRZ, pull chip data through your phone, take a selfie, and boom—a digital passport credential ready to go. However, not everyone’s been a fan. Privacy activists, especially on social media, have been critical of it. “Some called it surveillance. But airlines already have all your data,” he pointed out. Groups, that he refused to mention, raised flags but didn’t engage directly. “They were tweeting criticisms using their real names and selfies, which is the very data they claimed to protect.” Here’s the kicker: “One influencer even made a reel saying he rejected Digi Yatra—with his face all over Instagram,” Khadakbhavi laughed. He stressed that the system is totally voluntary. The only data collected is your flight details and a selfie. Even with Aadhaar, only the last four digits and some basic info are stored. “Airports already have cameras everywhere—what exactly are we doing that’s new or scary?” he asked.
Digi Yatra isn’t trying to make money. It’s a not-for-profit with a bigger mission: to build what Suresh Khadakbhavi calls the “travel stack of India.”
Digi Yatra is a digital initiative led by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in India aimed at streamlining the passenger experience at airports.
["AI in Travel", "Digi Yatra", "privacy law"]
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["AI", "ML", "Aim", "AWS", "R", "SQL", "Go", "Git", "ETL", "innovation"]
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.