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Hyderabad becomes the first airport in India to enable E-boarding for international flights
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Developed in-house in keeping with the true spirit of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’
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Indigo becomes first airline to avail international e-boarding service
Hyderabad (India), 27 October, 2020: GMR led Hyderabad International Airport has the credit to be the first and only airport in India to offer truly end-to-end paperless E-boarding to all its domestic passengers across all flights. Building on this laurel, under the true spirit of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, GMR Hyderabad International Airport has now started rolling out this indigenously developed digital solution to international flights, becoming the first airport in India to do so. This marks a significant milestone in the history of Indian aviation.
In line with the Government of India’s Digital India campaign, GHIAL’s international e-boarding service ramps up safe travel options for international passengers choosing to fly out of Hyderabad. The service is currently available for select international flights of IndiGo Airlines. Hyderabad International Airport rolled out its e-boarding services for international flights after the government’s nod based on a rigorous and successful pilot.
As a key partner to this initiative, 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 2 October 2020. 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.
Speaking about this significant achievement, Mr. Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL, said, “Leveraging tech-enabled solutions to continuously elevate passenger experience is our key focus area. In Iine with this, 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 pandemic, automating the passenger journey provides more pleasant airport experience. After the successful pilot of the project and all regulatory approvals, we have used our internal capabilities to take up e-boarding solution for international operations.”
He further added, “Implementation of successful E-boarding at RGIA is outcome of the collaboration with cross functional teams and all stakeholders, including our key partner IndiGo. We are confident that very soon we will get all our international carriers operating out of Hyderabad onto our e-boarding platform.”
The E-boarding solution is fully backwards-compatible, and passengers would be free to choose between using conventional paper boarding passes or electronic boarding passes on their mobile phones to use the system.Some of the key benefits out of International E-boarding include:
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Enhanced passenger experience as its helps in reducing queue waiting time at the airport
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As an advance security solution, e-boarding removes redundancies at check points
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Helps airlines to optimize their processes and improve their resource utilization
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The real time data availability of all passenger check points helps airport to continuously enhance its operational efficiency.
- Enhances overall safety and security of airport
As a process, any passenger boarding an international flight using e-boarding service will have to follow the steps below:
Booking
1) Book the ticket online
2) Do a web check-in
Airport
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Departures Entrance Gate:Display the digital/printed boarding card at the e-boarding scanner; CISF validates the documents and allows passenger entry
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Check in Counter: Check in agent scans the boarding card/s; Passenger drops luggage at the counter
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Immigration: Passenger completes passport verification by officials of Bureau of Immigration
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Security Screening Zone:Puts hand baggage on Automatic Tray Retrieval System (ATRS), moves for security check. Scans the boarding card on e-boarding scanner and moves on
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Boarding Gate: At the announcement of boarding, scans the boarding card on e-boarding scanner and moves towards the gates for boarding the aircraft
All international departures passengers are being processed from the Interim International Departures Terminal (IIDT). Special screening and safety measures are in place during the flight’s handling to protect against the COVID-19, which includes thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.
Recently, the Hyderabad International Airport achieved Airports Council International’s (ACI) Airport Health Accreditation’ for its measures strengthening safe travels.
It could be recalled that Hyderabad International Airport went live for its domestic e-boarding facility in December 2015. The airport is currently handling every scheduled domestic operations through this end-to-end paperless E-boarding.