DigiYatra Now Mandatory for International Transit at DEL, BOM, BLR and HYD
By Aarav Sharma (Aarav Sharma covers Indian airline operations, airport infrastructure and route economics. He writes about Tier-1 and Tier-2 airport developments, IndiGo and Air India fleet strategy, and the unsung Indian aviation hubs travellers should know about.) · Published · 10 min read
From June 2026, DigiYatra is no longer optional for international transit at India's four busiest airports. Here is the enrollment checklist, the Aadhaar-less workaround, and whether the privacy concerns are worth worrying about.
TL;DR — What Just Changed
As of June 2026, DigiYatra facial-recognition boarding is mandatory for all international transit passengers at Indira Gandhi International (DEL), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (BOM), Kempegowda International (BLR), and Rajiv Gandhi International (HYD). If you are transiting through any of these four airports on an international routing, you will be enrolled at the airport whether you pre-registered or not. Domestic flights at these airports and all other Indian airports remain on a voluntary-enroll basis, but the writing is on the wall.
Pre-enrolling saves you around 10–15 minutes at the counter. Skipping it means biometric capture on arrival at the transit desk anyway — just with a queue and a less-than-cheerful CISF official.
What Exactly Is DigiYatra and Why Did India Mandate It?
DigiYatra is a paperless boarding system run by DigiYatra Foundation — a not-for-profit set up by Airports Authority of India and several private airport operators. You register once via the DigiYatra app (iOS/Android), link your Aadhaar, add a selfie, and the system recognises your face at security and boarding gates, matching it to your PNR without you showing a boarding pass or ID each time.
The mandate for international transit is a push to plug a real operational gap: international transit passengers — say, someone flying Kolkata–Delhi–London — were often the slowest to clear the domestic-to-international transfer desk because their PNR straddled two check-in systems. DGCA and MoCA framed mandatory DigiYatra as a security and throughput fix. DEL, which handles the country's largest share of international connections, lobbied hard for it.
The practical upside is genuine: connecting passengers at T3 Delhi who pre-enrolled have been clearing the inter-terminal transfer in well under half the time compared to the manual queue, per DIAL's own reported numbers. Whether those numbers are fully independent is another matter, but the speed improvement is real — I've done the transfer both ways.
How to Enroll Before Your Flight — Step by Step
- Download the DigiYatra app from the App Store or Play Store. The app is published by DigiYatra Foundation — don't download any lookalike.
- Link your Aadhaar via OTP to your registered mobile number. The app does an eKYC pull — your name and date of birth come across automatically.
- Take the selfie in good lighting; the app will reject blurry or low-light captures. You get three attempts before it asks you to try again later.
- Add your upcoming flight using PNR or booking reference. The system needs at least a few hours to sync with the airline's departure control system, so don't try this at the airport gate.
- At the airport, walk to the DigiYatra e-gate lane. Look into the camera, and the gate opens. No physical ID check required at that point — though carry your passport for immigration regardless.
If you're flying Air India or IndiGo (the two largest operators on international routes), both airlines have integrated DigiYatra prompts into their own apps and web check-in flows since early 2026, which makes the enroll step easier if you're already in their ecosystem.
What If Your Aadhaar Isn't Linked to Your Mobile Number?
This catches a surprising number of people — especially those who moved cities, changed SIMs, or simply never got around to the Aadhaar-mobile link. If your Aadhaar OTP goes to a number you don't own anymore, you have a few options:
- Update your Aadhaar-linked mobile at an Aadhaar Seva Kendra (UIDAI walk-in centre). The update takes around 10 working days to propagate, so you can't do this the night before your flight. Check uidai.gov.in for your nearest centre.
- Face Authentication via mAadhaar is a newer workaround: some versions of the DigiYatra app allow Aadhaar face-auth instead of OTP, but rollout is patchy — check the current app release notes.
- Airport enrollment kiosk: all four mandate airports now have DigiYatra enrollment kiosks at the check-in hall. Biometric capture happens there; staff verify your passport and boarding pass manually. It is slower, but it works.
- OCI/NRI/passport-only travellers: see the separate article on DigiYatra for NRIs without Aadhaar for a fuller breakdown.
One thing that tripped up a few travellers in the first weeks of the mandate: the enrollment kiosk lane at BOM T2 international is on the ground floor, past the check-in rows — not near the security lane where you might expect it. Signage was poor in early June 2026. Give yourself an extra 30 minutes if you need kiosk enrollment.
Privacy Opt-Out: Is There Actually One?
Here is the honest answer: not really — not for international transit under the mandate. For voluntary domestic DigiYatra, you can simply not sign up and use the manual lane. Under the mandate, transit passengers are being enrolled whether they choose to or not.
DigiYatra Foundation's stated position is that facial data is stored only on your device and deleted from airport systems within 24 hours of departure. The Delhi High Court has a running petition (filed by privacy researcher groups) challenging whether that 24-hour deletion is actually audited. As of this writing, the court has asked DigiYatra Foundation for a compliance affidavit, but the mandate proceeded in the interim.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDP Act) technically requires informed, specific consent before processing biometric data. Several legal scholars argue the airport mandate sidesteps this because it is notified under a civil aviation security order rather than going through DPDP's consent framework. Whether that argument holds up is genuinely unclear — the courts will decide.
If privacy is a hard concern for you, the practical options under the current mandate are limited: you can request human-lane verification at the transit desk (available at all four airports — ask a CISF officer), accept that your biometric is captured but deleted per the stated policy, or choose routing that avoids these four transit points, which is obviously impractical for most India–international connections.
For a deeper look at the data-rights question, read our dedicated piece on DigiYatra privacy and the DPDP Act.
Which Airports Are Still Voluntary? And What's Coming Next?
As of June 2026, the mandate applies only to international transit at DEL, BOM, BLR and HYD. Every other Indian airport — including Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa — is still on the voluntary opt-in basis for DigiYatra. Domestic flights even at the four mandate airports are still voluntary for now.
MoCA's roadmap (per the aviation ministry's published 2025–26 annual report) targets rollout at 10 more Tier-2 airports by end of 2026, and there is language about making domestic DigiYatra mandatory eventually. The timeline keeps slipping — the original mandate was supposed to start in March 2026 and was pushed twice — so I'd treat the Tier-2 rollout dates as aspirational rather than firm.
Akasa Air and Air India Express, who handle a lot of the regional-to-metro connecting traffic, have been slower to integrate their check-in systems with DigiYatra than IndiGo and Air India. If you're on an Akasa or AIX connecting itinerary through a mandate airport, verify the DigiYatra e-gate compatibility with the airline before the day of travel — the systems sometimes fail to pull the PNR for codeshare or interline bookings.
Practical Tips Before You Transit
- Enroll at least 48 hours before departure. The PNR sync window sometimes needs up to a day, especially for Air India international codeshares on partner metal.
- Keep your passport out at the DigiYatra gate for the first few weeks you use it — gate staff sometimes ask for physical verification even after the camera clears you, particularly at BLR T2 where the system was newer.
- If the gate fails (it does, occasionally — camera calibration drifts in high-footfall periods), there is a manual bypass button on the gate panel. Don't stand there waiting; press it and tell the officer. It is not an admission of anything.
- The DigiYatra selfie and your passport photo need to roughly match. If you've grown a full beard, shaved your head, or gone significantly lighter or heavier since your passport photo, the match score can drop. This is a live issue the system has; the workaround is to re-enroll with a fresh selfie closer to your travel date.
- Book smarter: if you're searching for AI flight search on FlightGPT, the itinerary cards now flag which airports are DigiYatra-mandatory transit points, so you can factor in the enrollment time.
Frequently asked questions
Is DigiYatra mandatory for domestic flights in India in 2026?
Not yet. As of June 2026, DigiYatra is mandatory only for international transit passengers at Delhi (DEL), Mumbai (BOM), Bangalore (BLR) and Hyderabad (HYD). Domestic flights at all Indian airports, including these four, remain on a voluntary opt-in basis — though MoCA has indicated mandatory domestic rollout is planned eventually.
What happens if I refuse DigiYatra at a mandate airport?
You can request manual processing at the transit desk at any of the four airports — this is available at DEL, BOM, BLR and HYD. A CISF officer will verify your passport and boarding pass the old-fashioned way. It will take longer (typically an extra 15–25 minutes in queue), but you won't be denied boarding for refusing the biometric gate, based on current policy.
How long is my face data kept by DigiYatra?
DigiYatra Foundation's stated policy is that facial data is purged from airport servers within 24 hours of your departure. Your biometric template stays on your own device in the DigiYatra app; the airport infrastructure does not retain a permanent copy, per their published privacy policy. A Delhi HC petition is currently pressing for an independent audit of this deletion claim — the case is ongoing as of June 2026.
Can I use DigiYatra if my name on the boarding pass doesn't exactly match my Aadhaar?
Minor differences — like a missing middle initial or a slight spelling variation — are usually handled by the eKYC step at enrollment, which uses your Aadhaar-verified legal name. Significant mismatches (different surname order, entirely different spelling) can cause the PNR sync to fail. If you have a name discrepancy between your Aadhaar and your airline ticket, fix the ticket name first via the airline's name-correction process before enrolling that PNR in DigiYatra.
Does DigiYatra work for international departure (not just transit)?
Yes — DigiYatra has been available for full international departures at DEL and BOM since 2024 on a voluntary basis, and some international departure gates at BLR and HYD support it too. The June 2026 mandate specifically targets the transit scenario (domestic-to-international or international-to-international connections within India), not the outbound departure itself. That remains voluntary for now.
Which airlines have DigiYatra integrated in their own apps?
As of mid-2026, IndiGo and Air India have the deepest integration — their web check-in and app flows prompt DigiYatra enrollment and can auto-sync your PNR. Air India Express and Akasa Air have partial integration but the PNR pull is less reliable for interline itineraries. SpiceJet's integration has been inconsistent given the airline's ongoing operational constraints. Verify with your airline's app before relying on automatic PNR sync.