4-fold increase in DigiYatra app usage at city airport in a year
Times of India | 2 March 2025
Kolkata: The number of passengers using the DigiYatra app to travel through Kolkata airport increased by four times since Jan 2024, with nearly all frequent flyers, including industrialists, businessmen, executives and professionals, using the facility to breeze through the airport.
Airport officials further expect the daily app user count, currently over 6,500, to increase to over 10,000 once the DigiYatra gates become operational in domestic transit transfer. That could happen within a couple of months. More than 4,000 flyers, many of them travelling to and from the Northeast, switch domestic flights at the Kolkata airport and use the domestic-to-domestic transit facility.
Speaking to TOI, an airport official said the adoption of the DigiYatra app gained significantly in the past 12-13 months. The app enables flyers to preload the boarding pass after web check-in. It does not involve any human intervention thereafter to enter the airport terminal and avoid security check queues.
The airport also has DigiYatra kiosks for those who do not have the app but want to avail themselves of the convenience. However, this involves human intervention in two phases: once while using the kiosk and again while the CISF personnel at the gate authenticate the data.
While 85%-86% of flyers were availing themselves of the latter till the beginning of last year, the ratio changed to 50% each last Oct, indicating the increased adoption of the DigiYatra app.
The figure became further skewed with temporary disruption in the kiosks in the past couple of months. This led to a doubling of app users. While most of the kiosks are now operational again, 83%-84% of departing DigiYatra users are opting for the app now.
Sources at the airport said that unlike a year ago when volunteers known as Digi Buddies were deployed to catch hold of passengers unfamiliar with DigiYatra and make them experience the convenience after enrolling them through kiosks, the airport would facilitate flyers who seek assistance in using DigiYatra but not go out of the way to push its usage as a sizeable number of those who felt the difference already adopted the app and were using it while travelling.
Airport officials said the use of DigiYatra kiosks, which dropped dramatically due to the relocation of the terminals, would revive soon as the work is nearly complete. The kiosks located near terminal gates 1, 2, and 3 have been shifted from the kerb side along the flyover carriageway to the facade wall, and a shade has been provided to shield users from the sun and rain. "Once the use of the kiosk is revived, we expect a 50:50 split between passengers using the DigiYatra app and kiosk," the official said.
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