Hyderabad International Airport — Spearheading Digitisation

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Lt. (GHIAL), declared world’s No.1 airport in Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passengers survey by the Montreal based Airports Council International (ACI), is working on a proof of concept for facial recognition, first of its kind at any Indian airport. The technology requires onetime biometric registration of the user, post which the bonafide user can access the airport terminal simply by looking at the camera positioned at the check points across the terminal entry gates.

Commenting on the GHIAL’s digitalisation efforts, S.G.K. Kishore, CEO, GHIAL said, “We have pioneered e-boarding facility and played a pivotal role in the elimination of Hand Baggage Stamping. In the coming days, we will be rolling out a pilot project to enable 100 per cent paperless travel through our airport, using the biometric identification of a passenger to replace both the ticket as well as the boarding card. As we embark on the expansion of the airport, our vision is to make the upgraded and expanded Hyderabad Airport into the first fully tech-enabled Smart Airport in the country.”

GHIAL is a joint venture company promoted by the GMR Group (63%) in partnership with Airports Authority of India (13%), Government of Telangana (13%) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11%). The airport was commissioned in a record time of 31 months and inaugurated on March 14, 2008, with an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA).

The ACI award was given in the five to15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category for the year 2017.

Applauding the recognition Srinivas Bommidala, Chairman-Airports, GMR Group, said, “This is a recognition of the collaborative work of all stakeholders at Hyderabad Airport. As we witness robust traffic growth, we look forward to a strong collaboration and support of all airport stakeholders and partners. We are embarking on the expansion of Hyderabad Airport, which will not just provide necessary infrastructure boost to facilitate high air traffic and passenger growth, but also a delightful passenger experience with right fusion of technology and human touch.”

It has been ranked as the best airport in 2009, 2010, 2011, second best in 2012 and 2013 and third best in 2014.