Hyderabad, Oct 27 (IANS): GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport on Tuesday announced launch of end-to-end paperless e-boarding for international flights, thus becoming the first airport in India to do so.
The service is currently available for select international flights of IndiGo Airlines. The airport rolled out its e-boarding services for international flights after the government's nod based on a rigorous and successful pilot.
IndiGo Airlines became the maiden carrier to commence this facility when their Sharjah-bound passengers e-boarded themselves from Hyderabad on the 6E 1405 flight on October 2.
Other scheduled international carriers operating out of Hyderabad are in the process of integration with the airport's e-boarding system, which will be rolled out soon, airport operator GHIAL said.
Hyderabad International Airport went live for its domestic e-boarding facility in December 2015.
It claims to be the first and only airport in India to offer truly e-boarding to all its domestic passengers across all flights.
"We are delighted to announce that after about five years of successfully operating e-boarding for domestic flights, we have launched the e-boarding solution for international operations as well -- another first for any Indian airport.
"In the present scenario of the coronavirus pandemic, automating the passenger journey provides more pleasant airport experience. After the success of pilot project and all regulatory approvals, we have used our internal capabilities to take up e-boarding solution for international operations," said Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL.
He said he is confident that very soon they will get all international carriers operating out of Hyderabad onto their e-boarding platform.
The e-boarding solution is fully backwards-compatible, and passengers will be free to choose between using conventional paper boarding passes or electronic boarding passes on their mobile phones to use the system.
International e-boarding offers various benefits like reducing queue waiting time at the airports, removing redundancies at check points, helps airlines to optimise their processes and improve their resource utilisation.
The real-time data availability of all passenger checkpoints helps airports to continuously enhance operational efficiency. The e-boarding enhances overall safety and security of the airport, it said.
Any passenger boarding an international flight using e-boarding service will have to book the ticket online and do a web check-in. At departures entrance gate, he has to display the digital/printed boarding card at the e-boarding scanner; CISF validates the documents and allows passenger entry. At the check-in counter, check-in agent scans the boarding card and passenger drops the luggage at the counter. The passenger then completes passport verification formalities by officials of Bureau of Immigration.
At the security screening zone, he puts hand baggage on the Automatic Tray Retrieval System (ATRS) and moves for security check. He scans the boarding card on e-boarding scanner and moves on.
At the announcement of boarding, he scans the boarding card on e-boarding scanner and moves towards the gates for boarding the aircraft.