Contactless e-gates using facial recognition technology are being rolled out at 13 UK airports from this month, allowing British passport holders to pass through border control without presenting their passports.
The upgraded system captures the returning passenger's face at the e-gates and matches it against their passport photo already on record. According to the Home Office, the technology is designed to speed up border checks, slashing queues by up to 25 per cent. British passport holders will no longer need to search for their passports or endure lengthy border-control queues.
Border Force welcomes digital transformation
Phil Douglas, director general of Border Force, said: "This is a win for travellers coming to our brilliant country. By using state-of-the-art technology, we are making journeys smoother and faster, all while fully maintaining the UK’s robust border security. Our digital transformation also builds on our work this summer to extend eGates to children aged eight and above, making life a little easier for families."
To streamline the process, airlines would send passport photographs of their British passengers to border control at each airport on the day of arrival, which would then be loaded into the e-gates system. Douglas added: "Because we know who's coming and can load up that gallery of who is arriving, it's not a one in 60 million check, it's a one in tens of thousands check [because the system only needs to check against the passports of passengers travelling on that particular day]."
Rollout begins at Birmingham and East Midlands
The gradual rollout commenced on Tuesday, 6 October, and will first launch at Birmingham and East Midlands airports over the next few weeks. By early next year, the new 'contactless borders' will be introduced across other UK airports already fitted with e-gates.
Steve Griffiths, managing director of East Midlands Airport, said: "We’re delighted to be the first UK airport to have contactless eGates introduced by Border Force. As an airport committed to providing an effortless travel experience, we welcome any technological innovation that can help to safely make our customers’ journeys smoother, swifter and simpler. This complements changes that we carried out to our immigration hall recently to help improve the flow of arriving passengers through the area."
Full list of 13 UK airports
- Birmingham Airport
- Bristol Airport
- Cardiff Airport
- East Midlands Airport
- Edinburgh Airport
- Glasgow Airport
- London City Airport
- London Gatwick Airport
- London Heathrow Airport
- London Luton Airport
- London Stansted Airport
- Manchester Airport
- Newcastle International Airport
While the system will initially be rolled out for British passport holders using e-gates at UK airports, there are plans to expand it to other nationalities carrying biometric passports, including those from Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and the US. Passengers who cannot be identified at the e-gate under the new system would need to revert to the existing method and scan their passports instead. Should this also prove unsuccessful, they will be directed to a staffed border control desk where their passport will be checked manually.
