A new travel rule has come into effect this week across 13 airports in the UK, including Manchester, benefiting families travelling abroad this summer. The Home Office announced a change to passport e-gate rules on Wednesday, July 8, allowing children aged eight and nine to use the electronic gates.
Expanded eligibility for e-gates
Previously, only passengers aged 10 and above could use e-gates, forcing families with younger children to queue at manned passport booths. The e-gates use facial recognition technology to verify passengers' identities against their passport photos. The policy change will allow approximately 1.5 million additional children to use the gates.
To use the e-gates, children must be at least 120cm tall to be visible to the biometric scanners and must be accompanied by an adult. The change also applies to juxtaposed controls at ports in Brussels and Paris.
Full list of 13 UK airports with e-gates
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cardiff
- East Midlands
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- London City
- London Gatwick
- London Heathrow
- London Luton
- London Stansted
- Manchester
- Newcastle
Border Force director-general Phil Douglas said increasing access to e-gates enables “highly skilled officers to focus on intercepting those who pose a threat to the UK”. There are nearly 300 e-gates in the UK.
Who can use the e-gates?
E-gates are available not only to British nationals but also to nationals from the European Union, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. Members of the registered traveller service can also use them.
