radhesh

Short version : Kids do not require proof of identity to access Indian airports / flights

Long version: DW & I left our kids passports at home on a recent trip from BLR to BOM. By the time we realized the oversight, it was too late to go back to fetch it, so we were on tenterhooks. The first security guy (CISF) at the airport entrance waved us through after looking at the adults' passports. At the check-in counter, we asked the CSR, who said that passports (or other proof of identity) are not required for kids on domestic flights.

zoonil

Isn't it true anywhere? In the USA, TSA does not require ID's below 18

Yaatri

I don't know what the age threshold is but one does not have to show ID for kids under the threshold age int he U.S. too, unless you are traveling internationally.

olwagner

Until very recently (june 20, 2008), even adults could fly without ID in the US:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/....id/index.html

I am not sure if the ID requirement changed.

Note that for years (at least a decade) airline and TSA employees claimed that ID were mandatory when they weren't, but flying without ID was (may still be) possible even if one had to argue a little bit.

daniellam

With the exception of international travel, the only reason why ID is required in the first place is for an airline to protect its revenue (so people won't resell unused tickets etc).

From a security point of view, all that is needed is a trough security screening.

GUWonder

Precisely.

In terms of domestic flights in India, I've never had a problem flying without showing ID although sometimes they would ask to see a photo ID if the ticket was paid for with a credit card online or over the phone directly through the airline.

Mr. Bean

Just for the pax who booked the tickets online or for all pax? I may be travelling with some very elderly folk and I'm not sure they have "photo ID"

hserus

The pax whose CC booked the ticket

Mr. Bean

Interesting. I just booked a few tix with IndiGo and they say to have photo ID for all pax, as well as the CC used to pay the tix. Maybe the photo ID requirement is just not uniformly enforced? Is this something that varies airline to airline or is there a centralized screening process like in the US?

Yaatri

That's the airline protecting its revenue again! It has nothing to do with security.

GUWonder

The airlines have not been asking me (an adult) for photo ID at all in recent months -- that is the same as usual for me going back decades -- nor is it required of children. There is centralized, routine checking at the likes of DEL for domestic flights but that is just done upon attempting entry into the terminal building and is done by the CISF guard -- it is not even being done routinely by the airline, so it is still very easy for people to fly under other people's names domestically in India as anyone can create a printout under any name matching their photo ID and then checking in and/or boarding using another printout with the ticketed passenger name(s).

Next time I run into the Home Minister, I will make sure to inform him of what I think about this stupid ID checking policy and the false impression that ID checking at airports is a valuable security check. ID is not security. The revised approach to ID checking at Indian airports that aligns domestic flight terminal entry procedures with international flight terminal entry was done because of a false belief in the value of ID checking as a security measure.