The Ministry of Civil Aviation has confirmed that its flagship Digi Yatra platform—currently used only by domestic passengers—will be tested on select international flights between October and December 2026. Trials will begin at Delhi and Mumbai before expanding to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin. Under the pilot, travellers holding an Indian e-passport will create a one-time ‘digital credential’ on their phone by scanning the passport’s chip and taking a selfie with liveness detection. That credential will let them walk through automated e-gates at terminal entry, security and (in a later phase) immigration, eliminating repeated document checks. Immigration formalities will not disappear overnight. Officials told Hindustan Times that the border-control database is presently isolated from Digi Yatra; only after security and privacy audits by CERT-In and STQC will automated border control be integrated. Until then, regular emigration checks will continue for outbound passengers and nothing will change for arrivals. If the pilot succeeds, the long-term vision is to make Digi Yatra interoperable with overseas airports and to dovetail it with the Bureau of Immigration’s planned “Fast-Track Immigration–Trusted Traveller Programme” (FTI-TTP) for pre-verified Indian nationals and OCI card-holders. Airports will, however, need to procure new e-gates and upgrade backend systems, and rules such as the mandatory passport check at terminal entry will have to be amended. For Indian corporates, the prospect of a true curb-to-gate “one-tap” journey could translate into shorter journey times for road-warriors, fewer missed connections, and richer data for travel-policy compliance. Global mobility managers should track how quickly the immigration interface is added; a fragmented roll-out would continue to require manual processes for cross-border trips.
Source: Hindustan Times
