As Covid-19 induces contactless travel, advance scanners to fight fraud

Security agencies along with airlines are mulling to introduce advance scanning tools to ensure foolproof passenger movement during the time of contactless travel. According to a top official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the risk of misuse of online boarding passes has multiplied now as all the airlines are promoting self check-ins and e-boarding pass for passengers.

As a result of an instruction by India's aviation security watchdog, the airlines will bring in a mechanism wherein taking copies of the boarding pass or downloading more than one will lead to ‘duplicated’ being automatically printed on the extra boarding passes. Along with this, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawans will get advance scanners which can verify any modification, alteration or forgery of travel documents to avoid any misuse of such passes.

The security regulator for the Indian civil aviation industry - the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) - had issued a circular warning the CISF and airlines on the possibility of misuse of boarding passes and the need to fix these gaps. “Passengers with ill intentions may falsify their barcoded boarding passes by changing the flight number or class of service. They may also print two copies of the barcoded boarding pass and pass one to a friend or even create a counterfeit bar-coded boarding pass,” BCAS said in the circular.

The agency asked the stakeholders to come up with technological solutions for seamless and contactless travel.

When air services resumed after the suspension of services for two months during the lockdown that was imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus, the airlines encouraged passengers to use self-check-in and e-boarding pass services.

Most of the airlines claim that they will incorporate the suggestions as e-boarding passes have the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recommended barcode. All such boarding passes are reconciled electronically against the Passenger Servicing System. This process takes care of any potential risk that it may cause due to a forged barcode, forged boarding pass or due to multiple copies of boarding passes.