Digi Yatra starts trials for international flyers at 7 airports, using your e-passport

Digi Yatra, the app that lets domestic flyers walk through airport checkpoints by showing their face instead of a boarding pass and ID, has started trials for international passengers. The Ministry of Civil Aviation announced the trials in a government press release on 1 November 2026.

Where and when

The trials will run from November to December 2026 at seven airports:

• Delhi
• Mumbai
• Bengaluru
• Hyderabad
• Chennai
• Cochin
• Amritsar

They cover select international flights of Air India and IndiGo. Passengers can use Digi Yatra at terminal entry, the security hold area and the boarding gate, but only where the airport has set up the required equipment.

Who can use it

The trial is open to Indian nationals who hold an e-passport. That is the newer passport with a small electronic chip inside it.

To get started, the traveller creates an e-passport-based digital credential in the Digi Yatra app. According to the press release, the steps are:

1. Scan the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the passport's photo page.
2. Hold the passport to the phone so the app can read its chip using NFC. This needs a phone with NFC.
3. Take a selfie.
4. Let the app verify the details.

The credential is then stored in the Digi Yatra wallet on the passenger's own phone and can be used at the trial touchpoints.

What it does not replace

This is not a shortcut through immigration. The ministry says the facility adds to, and does not replace, the normal process. Passengers still have to carry their passport and travel documents, clear the airline's document checks, and go through immigration and all other formalities.

So for now, the time saved is at the entry gate, security and boarding, not at the immigration counter.

How big Digi Yatra already is

The ministry's numbers show how far the system has spread at home:

• 26.5 million+ users
• 110 million+ journeys
• 39 domestic airports
• 25 more domestic airports planned by 2027

Feedback from the international trial will be used to plan a wider rollout in 2027.

What we don't know yet

The release does not list which specific flights are included, how many passengers can join the trial, or when other airlines and airports will be added. It also does not say whether foreign nationals will be able to use the system later. We will update this story if the ministry shares more.

Day1 take

Digi Yatra started as a domestic convenience. Taking it to international travel, and tying it to the e-passport chip, is a bigger step for India's digital public infrastructure. For travel-tech and identity startups, the lesson is that India is building travel on verifiable credentials stored on the user's own phone. Products that work with that model, rather than around it, are likely to fit in better as it grows.

If you hold an e-passport and are flying Air India or IndiGo abroad from one of these seven airports before December, look for the Digi Yatra signs at the terminal and tell us how it went.

Sources: PIB press release, Ministry of Civil Aviation, "Digi Yatra Begins International Passenger Trials at Seven Airports" (primary, 1 Nov 2026). All figures in this story are from that release.