Soon, Aadhar card, mobile phone may be all you need for air travel

You might soon be using just your mobile phone and Aadhaar for air travel minus all that paperwork, with the government looking to roll out a digital system for airport entry and subsequent journey requirements.

Under the proposed 'digi yatra' initiative, the civil aviation ministry is looking to make "boarding pass and security interactions" digital.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha Friday said the ministry is working on the initiative to ensure the whole air travel experience is completely digital.

"Your payment is digital, your boarding and securityinteractions are digital... That is the digi yatra concept weare working on," he noted.

According to Sinha, under the initiative, there will beno need for any paper and the traveller will be securelyidentified through Aadhaar number, passport or otherdocuments.

"We have a working group established and we are very hopeful of rolling out some of these in the next few months," the minister said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event organised byindustry body CII, Sinha said, "The whole experience would becompletely digital so that you wouldn't need any paper and youwould be able to book your car to the airport, get into theairport, get a digital boarding pass, board your aircraft, take a car way back and do all of that just with your mobilephone."

Also Read: PAN card not linked with Aadhar card may be invalid after December 31

He also stressed that the ministry is trying to understand how best to establish a uniform set of standards and protocols so that they can be applied across the system.

Meanwhile, Sinha said the ministry is in the process ofcoming up with an approach to have a no-fly list that is basedon safety.

"... if passengers behave in an unruly or disruptivemanner and endanger the safety of all of us in an aeroplane, then we will have a way of ensuring they are not able to flyand are appropriately dealt with," he said.

Noting that the ministry is blazing a new trail on the no-fly list based on safety apart from security considerations, Sinha said it is a serious matter that needs a great deal of deliberations.

The government decided to have a no-fly list in the wake of instances of unruly behaviour by air passengers, especially in the case of Shiva Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad who assaulted anAir India staffer last month.