Aadhaar may soon be mandatory for booking flight tickets
- Aadhaar card may soon be made mandatory for flight bookings.
- This could help in the swift transit within airports and baggage deliveries, among other facilities.
- Passport or PAN card may also be among the UIDs to be made mandatory.
FollowAir travellers may soon be required to produce a Unique Identification (UID) like passport, PAN card or Aadhaar card while booking flight tickets. This will not only help seamless airport entry and check-ins, but may also help identify unruly passengers. Speaking to a press conference, junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha confirmed that the ministry is hoping to introduce the mandate soon.
However, that can be done only when a digital working group is set up by the ministry within 30 days who can come out with a white paper and subsequently, comments from the stakeholders would be sought before finalising the norms, said Sinha. New rules may be effective from 3-4 months. Sinha further added, "We are trying to see what else we can have as unique ID so that more people are covered. A white paper will be given on creating seamless travel, after which comments from public will be sought. Then, we will come to a decision on this. This is a pull experience and not a push experience. Passengers still have the option of carrying a boarding pass if they so wish.”
The fact that Aadhar may not cover a larger population is also being speculated. Hence, it is also possible that Aadhar could just be an option among other options rather than a mandate. This, move however would have a number of benefits. For instance, this might identify a person on the government no-fly list. This will also help faster airport entry and automated check-ins. This will also help in walk-through security scanners, owing to advanced biometric security solutions and receive relevant information pertaining to various facilities, protocols, queue lengths, airline timings, etc.
Passengers can also be notified instantly about real-time congestion and flight delays. Quick delivery of baggages, accompanied by a prompt sms, grievance filing and many more facilities are associated with it. Moreover, the digitisation will help reduce crowding and congestion at airports.
