Soon your face will be the boarding pass at airports in India: Thales

By Shailesh Yadav
Paris [France], June 20 : Remember last year's congestion at Delhi Airport when Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made a surprise visit there and suggested a few measures to mitigate the chaos?
Soon, your face will be your boarding pass. Thales, an Aerospace, Space, Defence to Security and Transportation company is working with Indian airport operators for a seamless journey from your home to the boarding without really contacting or looking at anyone in terms of checking your security at Airports.
At the ongoing week-long Paris Air Show, Thales has displayed 'Fly to Gate' biometric passenger journey solutions which will reduce the boarding time by an estimated 30 per cent.
Ashish Saraf, Vice President and Country Head for India, Thales said that his company has developed such solutions that one's face will be their boarding passes at Airport.
"The DigiYatra app on your phone will allow you to register your boarding pass, scan your face, it authenticates the face with your biometrics in Aadhar and registers yourself as a passenger enabled by DigiYatra. Now once you are at the airport, your face is your boarding pass. So when you are at the airport, you can enter using your face because it's already authenticated with your Identity. You will see separate DigiYatra gates at our airports which already exist."
"You go to the main gate security, there also your face is your boarding pass so it authenticates you. You go through security, and at the boarding you basically again will see the Thales face pod which will be installed there. It scans your face and you're in so effectively doing you a seamless journey from your home to the boarding without really contacting or looking at anyone in terms of checking your security etc. It's actually using your biometrics to authenticate and giving you a seamless boarding experience all the way to boarding the aeroplane."
Saraf clarified that the DigiYatra application, is, however, not mandatory to use this seamless facility.
"If you don't have the app, go to the airport, enrol yourself and you are registered. Then start your boarding process, but with app it's easy because you can do it from the comfort of your home, but if you're not, then you will find the Digi Yatra kiosk at the airport and you could go to boarding seamlessly," Saraf said.