Pariksha SaathiDigi Yatra begins trials for international passengers at seven airports; wider rollout planned for 2027
The Ministry of Civil Aviation said on 1 November 2026 that Digi Yatra has commenced trials for international passengers at seven airports: Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Mumbai, Chennai and Amritsar. During the trials, scheduled to run from November to December 2026, eligible Indian nationals holding e-passports can use Digi Yatra at designated airport touchpoints (terminal entry points, Security Hold Areas (SHA) and boarding gates, wherever the required infrastructure is available) while travelling on select international flights operated by Air India and IndiGo. To use it, they must create an e-passport-based Verifiable Credential (VC) through the Digi Yatra mobile application: this involves scanning the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) of the e-passport, reading its embedded chip using the Near Field Communication (NFC) feature of a compatible smartphone, capturing a selfie and verifying the details; the credential is stored in the passenger's Digi Yatra wallet on the device. The facility complements, and does not replace, existing travel processes: passengers must still carry their travel documents and complete mandatory airline document checks, immigration procedures and other formalities. Feedback from the trial period will inform the planning of a wider rollout in 2027. Digi Yatra has over 26.5 million users and has enabled more than 110 million journeys across 39 domestic airports, and a further 25 domestic airports are planned to be covered by 2027.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
The then Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia launched Digi Yatra on 1 December 2022 from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, for three airports: New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru. Conceived by the Digi Yatra Foundation under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Digi Yatra aims at contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT); to use it, a one-time registration on the Digi Yatra app was required using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture. The Minister said there is no central storage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII): a passenger's ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger's smartphone, and all the data are purged from the servers within 24 hours of use. The service was then launched for domestic flight passengers only, and its use is voluntary.
Check yourself: when, and for which three airports, was Digi Yatra launched, and on what technology is it based?
On 1 December 2022, for New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru; Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
Revision task: from this release, note the seven airports, the trial period, the airlines, the document and credential used, the year of wider rollout, and the user, journey and airport figures; from the note, the launch date and first three airports, the registration method then used and how passenger data are stored.
Test yourself
In the Digi Yatra trials for international passengers that began at seven airports for November to December 2026, eligible Indian nationals must create a Verifiable Credential based on which document?
Show the answer
Answer: E-passport
Eligible Indian nationals holding e-passports must create an e-passport-based Verifiable Credential (VC) through the Digi Yatra mobile application, by scanning the e-passport's Machine Readable Zone, reading its chip with a smartphone's NFC feature, capturing a selfie and verifying the details. The trials run from November to December 2026 at Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Mumbai, Chennai and Amritsar airports on select international flights of Air India and IndiGo.
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