Indian airports way ahead of Asian peers in biometric adoption: SITA APAC chief Sumesh Patel

Air traffic growth in India slowed down in 2025. What is your assessment of the Indian market?

I am quite bullish about the growth in India and I feel that it’s just one year where we had a bit of a challenge. It is driven by a number of factors and I would say the main factor would be capacity – not having the required number of aircraft to meet the demand. Passenger demand is surging and will continue to grow.

Globally, airlines and airports are investing in new technologies. What trends do you see in India?

More than 90 per cent of the airports and airlines, globally, are investing in technology. There are two key focus areas – one is to provide better passenger experience and the other is to have better operational efficiency. I would say that India is ahead of other countries in Asia Pacific in quite a few areas. For example, with Digi Yatra, India is way ahead of any other country in Asia in terms of biometric adoption at airports.

What is the adoption rate for solutions like self baggage drops or self-service kiosks in India?

One of the challenges in India is space constraint. There are no such large spaces available at Indian airports where we can install 50-100 self bag drop machines. So that is one of the things which is limiting in terms of the adoption. But I can say wherever we have invested, or the airports have deployed these solutions, it is being used fully. In terms of passenger usage of these technologies, India is on a par with any other country in Asia Pacific.

Can you tell us about SITA’s expansion plans in India?

India is clearly a key market for us. Our office in Gurgaon is our largest in the world. We are manufacturing kiosks and self bag drop equipment and that is not just for India. Our applications and our engineering teams are also based out of India to support both our local and global customers.