Tomorrow onwards, ID needed to book flight tickets in India

A few months ago, we’d mentioned about how Jet Airways had already started requesting your Aadhaar number to make travel bookings for you on a pilot project basis. This was a part of multiple projects, and it seems the government is now going to notify new rules tomorrow onwards which will implement a No-Fly list in India. The no-fly list discussion started after a Member of Parliament misbehaved with an Air India staff and was banned by Indian carriers temporarily from their planes. This means a change in the way you book flight tickets in India.

a group of airplanes on a runway

While the official rules would be out tomorrow, it is expected that you will now be able to use your PAN Card, Aadhaar Card, Driving License or Passport while booking a domestic ticket. The jury is still out on Election Commission ID cards being a part of this list of accepted documents.

I’d expect that there would be a central database where all the airlines would upload their No-Fly lists, given they are expected to be given powers to determine who goes on that list, and these IDs would be cross-referenced against those lists before approving a passengers ticket, rather than after.

Also, I’m not sure basis what I read right now about how would this work out if I had my Passport at the time of booking, but I present my Aadhaar at the time of checking-in for my flight. Let’s hope all of that is fungible for the time being.

What are your thoughts about the new process from the aviation regulator?

About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. It is very rude who wants to come one hour before reporting for fight of 45 mns from Hyderabad to Vijayawada

  2. This is annoying thing. Earlier railway used to have this type of booking and if we fail to bring that exact ID, our ticket becomes invalid and caused lots of inconvenience especially elderly.
    Later railway removed it.
    But Govt making airlines to implement this.

  3. Instead of doing all this non sense things why doest govt invest on making better foot path for pedestrians !! Even for people with disablity. Better roads. Roads that doesnt get clogged when it rains. These are small things which doesnt need lot of time! Why dont we give the basic things to people!! Making our passport more strong. Like more countries with Visa on arrival. We will always be a backward country. People studies here but goes to other countries for better jobs.

  4. The objective not being clear, I perceive this as a over design of security measures based on some incident or concern. I am afraid there will be significant inconvenience to consumers and one reason for that is also the grave typo errors, inconsistencies of data and appalling quality of photo images in the Govt issued Identity cards. However, let us wait to hear about the process involved in this requirement.

  5. How would this effect people from outside India on bookings? For example say I plan to travel there next year (I’m not from India) on an open jaw ticket and need to book a flight from India to another country. Can I still book this online? Seems odd. Or is this only for residents of India.

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