Dubai Airport trials AI border checks that clear passengers in 3.4 seconds
The AI-powered cameras can process up to 10 people at once
British holidaymakers could soon pass through border control in seconds under a new biometric trial at Dubai International Airport.
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The airport’s “red carpet” lane allows travellers to walk through immigration without stopping to show a passport or boarding pass.
Dubai’s immigration authority says AI-powered cameras can process up to 10 people at once, with passengers passing border control in as little as 3.4 seconds.
Passengers registered for the system only need to remove face coverings and look towards a green light on a biometric camera.
The service was first trialled for premium passengers at Terminal 3, but has since expanded to arriving travellers after more than 528,000 people used the Smart Corridor in 2025.
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More than 26 million passengers used Dubai’s Smart Gates last year, according to the General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs.
UAE and Gulf nationals, residents and visa-on-arrival visitors with biometric passports can use the gates automatically.
Children and people below 1.2 metres tall are not eligible.
Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said the technology would make checks “far less intrusive” while maintaining security standards.
He told The Times: “We’ve invested in camera technology, whereby you can continue to walk through a space and be verified as OK to enter or leave the country, so no passports in your hand, no gate readers, no difficulty with the whole process.
“We have to make the security process no less rigorous but far less intrusive.
“It will be rolled out to all passengers. At the moment we’ve trialled it in our first and business class, but we’ve now got the camera technology to roll it out properly.”
It comes as British tourists face hours-long queues at airports across Europe, with newly-introduced European Union (EU) passport checks sparking chaos.
Videos circulating on social media show passengers stuck in lengthy lines at airports from Rome and Palma de Mallorca to Malaga and Faro.
The disruption follows the rollout of the EU’s digital Entry/Exit System (EES), which requires non-EU citizens entering the 29-country Schengen area to register their fingerprints and a facial image on arrival, with the data checked again when they leave.