Soon, photo must to buy air tickets

India’s aviation security establishment plans to set up a massive logistical exercise for domestic passenger profiling to create a database of passengers and enable their instant identification with photographs and other details.

If a passenger books a ticket on a travel portal or directly with an airline, he/she will soon be asked to upload or submit his/her photograph and other personal details.

This data will then be forwarded to the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to be stored in the database. The ticket barcode will instantly display the passenger’s photo at airport entry points, sources said.

Domestic passenger profiling in the civil aviation sector would make it easy for authorities to track which passenger has travelled where, and the number of times he/she has gone to a particular place. Noting that brainstorming is on to work out modalities, sources said, “A database will be created along with photo-identity (details) which could contain data of around 10 million passengers.”

The cost involved in creating such a database will not be prohibitive, whereas the benefits are tremendous, they say. It is also being debated if the database should have biometric details about passengers. The creation of such a database is an ambitious exercise that will involve airlines, website portals and airport operators, besides government agencies. “Other aspects, like the software to be used, is yet to be discussed,” a source said.