Likely board flight using just your mobile number

Soon you will need only a mobile phone before you board a flight. Work is underway to ensure paperless boarding.

The aviation ministry is undertaking a process in which the databases of airlines and airports will be linked with passengers' IDs such as Aadhaar and passport number.

The process once completed will ensure that passengers will have to use only biometrics to ascertain their identity. This would mean that a flight ticket or e-ticket would not be necessary and the airline database will show the details of the flight that the passengers have booked. Moreover the linked airport databases will show if the passenger has been through checkin and security check gates before being allowed access to the boarding gate closer to flight departure time.

"We have set up a special unit in Airports Authority of India for giving shape to this 'digi yatra' programme. Airport operators, especially from Bangalore and Hyderabad, are part of this as they have done a lot of work in this field. We will soon know the indicative cost of the project and time frame in which it can be implemented," R N Choubey, aviation secretary told the Times of India.