Digi Yatra, With 26.5 Million Users and 110 Million Journeys, Began International Trials for E-Passport Holders at Seven Indian Airports on 1 November 2026

Digi Yatra, the face-based airport entry system that has more than 26.5 million users and has enabled over 110 million journeys across 39 domestic airports, began trials for international passengers on 1 November 2026. The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s release of that day says the trials run from November to December 2026 at seven airports, for Indian nationals who hold e-passports and fly on selected Air India and IndiGo international flights.

The figures for users and journeys are the ministry’s, from the same release. It adds that 25 more domestic airports are planned for coverage by 2027.

The seven airports and the three gates

The ministry lists Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Mumbai, Chennai and Amritsar. Aviation A2Z names the airports in full: Indira Gandhi International, Kempegowda International, Rajiv Gandhi International, Cochin International, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International, Chennai International and Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International at Amritsar. The Mumbai entry is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International, not the newer airport covered in our piece on Navi Mumbai and the airport boom.

Eligible passengers can use the facility at terminal entry points, at Security Hold Areas (the screened zone after security check) and at boarding gates, “wherever the required infrastructure is available”, in the release’s words. Business Today adds that access is limited to those designated touchpoints during the trial. Only selected flights count. IndiGo describes its coverage as selected flights, India Briefing’s guide reproduces a list of eligible flights by route, and the Digi Yatra app is where a traveller would confirm a given flight.

How to enrol with an e-passport

The release describes four steps in the Digi Yatra mobile app. The traveller scans the passport’s Machine Readable Zone, the two printed lines at the bottom of the photo page. The phone then reads the chip inside the passport using NFC (Near Field Communication, the short-range radio used for contactless payments). The traveller takes a selfie, and the app verifies the details. The result is an e-passport-based Verifiable Credential, a digital proof of identity, kept in the Digi Yatra wallet on the phone.

That means a phone with NFC. Smartprix’s walk-through says the app asks for consent at the start and that the passport is held against the back of the phone while the chip is read.

An e-passport is a hybrid of paper and electronics. The Ministry of External Affairs told the Lok Sabha on 6 February 2026 that it carries a Radio Frequency Identification chip with an embedded antenna. ThePrint reported on 18 November 2025 that an MEA official said every passport issued in India since 28 May 2025 is an e-passport, with the chip on the last page, and that more than 80 lakh (8 million) had been issued in the first six months. The same officials said older passports stay valid and no one needs to replace one early, so an older passport may have no chip. The trial is limited to e-passports.

What stays the same

The ministry says the facility is meant to complement existing processes, not replace them. Passengers still carry their travel documents and still go through airline document checks and immigration. Business Today spells out the consequence: valid passport, visas where required, and immigration clearance all remain.

IndiGo’s description of its flow, as Safari India reported it on 3 November, runs in order. The passenger uploads a boarding pass to the app and uses it at terminal entry. Document verification then happens at the airline check-in counter. After that, facial authentication works at the Security Hold Area and the boarding gate. Smartprix makes the same point about the check-in counter and advises keeping the physical passport to hand in case a face match fails, which is its advice rather than the ministry’s.

Safari India says the beta phase began at the end of October, while the ministry’s release is dated 1 November and India Briefing gives 1 November to 31 December as the window.

From three airports in 2022 to an international trial

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia launched Digi Yatra on 1 December 2022 at Delhi, with Varanasi and Bengaluru going live the same day, according to an ANI report. At that launch, registration needed Aadhaar-based validation and a selfie. (Our explainer on Aadhaar covers that system.) The international version drops the Aadhaar step, since the passport chip supplies the identity.

The Digi Yatra Foundation, which runs the system, is a non-profit company founded in February 2019 by the Airports Authority of India and the Cochin, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai airport companies, according to an Amazon Web Services case study. Its chief executive, Suresh Khadakbhavi, told The Hindu Tech Summit in Chennai in February 2026 that the app had 21 million users, roughly a third of domestic air passengers, and that passport-based enrolment had finished testing, Biometric Update reported. The ministry’s 26.5 million in November is the newer count.

IndiGo’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, Neetan Chopra, said the airline took part in a technical proof of concept earlier in 2026 and joined the trials as a partner. Khadakbhavi said interoperability with the International Air Transport Association’s One ID and the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Public Key Directory would support e-passport credentials for international travel. One ID, in IATA’s description, lets a passenger keep digital credentials in a wallet and share them with an airline on consent.

Where the data sits

The ministry says the credential is stored in the wallet on the passenger’s phone. The foundation’s home page describes its design as privacy preserving and built on Self Sovereign Identity, meaning the person holds their own credentials. At the 2022 launch the minister said there is no central storage of personal data and that uploaded data is purged from servers within 24 hours of use.

The ministry’s own policy document, version 7.8 of March 2021, says taking part is voluntary, that users can opt out and delete their profile, and that biometric data is purged from the airport system 24 hours after the passenger’s flight departs. Biometric Update’s report of the summit adds that the data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

The design has been questioned. In April 2024 a technologist’s investigation, published on X, raised questions about access and control of user data, and the foundation answered that a January 2024 audit confirmed no personally identifiable information is stored in the system. The ministry’s November release does not describe the international credential’s storage beyond the wallet on the phone, and the sources opened for this article do not include a separate audit of the international trial.

What the trial is for

The ministry says feedback from the trial will inform planning of a wider rollout in 2027. In Khadakbhavi’s February account, the longer aim is for a traveller to share one verified credential with both the departure and the destination airport, and he said the foundation was in talks with IATA and ICAO. The November release makes no commitment on destination airports, and the trial as announced covers departures from India.

The trial window closes in December 2026, and the release gives no date within 2027 for the wider rollout.