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UK Airports May No Longer Require Travelers to Show Their Passports
08.01.2024 - 21:53 / cntraveler.com
The next time you fly to the United Kingdom, you might be able to leave your passport safely tucked away in your bag. The nation’s airports will reportedly begin testing new facial recognition technology at “eGates” for arriving passengers, which would replace border control's standard physical passport check.
Trials of the technology could begin in UK airports as soon as this year, according to a report in The Times of London. If the tests run smoothly, the system could roll out across the nation. Phil Douglas, director general of the UK Border Force, told the paper that he wanted to make an “intelligent border” that used “much more frictionless facial recognition.”
Although the exact timing of the trial’s launch isn’t yet clear, the process could be similar to the technology used in Australian airports, which Douglas told The Times he’d used before and was “really impressed” by. “I had to apply for an electronic travel authorisation in advance and used my smartphone to read the chip in my passport,” Douglas said, according to The Times. “That sent the image of me in the chip to the Australian authorities. When I arrived in Australia, I didn’t even have to get my passport out of my bag. It is a really interesting concept.”
The UK is rolling out a digital travel authorization that will be required for all visa-free travelers by the end of 2024. Plus, the country already has more than 270 eGates in place at 15 air and rail ports. The eGates use facial recognition, but travelers must still swipe their passport at the checkpoint. Travelers from the US can currently use the eGates when arriving at some UK airports, including all three of the larges airports in London: Heathrow, Gatwick, and London City.
At some of the world's largest airports, facial recognition technology is replacing traditional passport checks. In addition to Australia, Dubai’s airport has successfully introduced biometric passport gates, and last September, Singapore’s Changi airport announced that it would become the first international hub to go completely passport-free in 2024, replacing all immigration checkpoints with facial recognition smart gates.
Although US airports haven’t begun any trials on biometric gates for passport checks, facial recognition technology is being used at customs and immigration checkpoints across the nation. However, border control officers still examine passengers' physical passports after their facial scans.
Even at the airports using the new technology, travelers will still need to carry their physical passports, in case they’re directed to a border officer for extra verification.
A majority of travelers are in favor of using biometrics to speed up the airport experience. A whopping 75 percent of
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