In order to facilitate passenger clearance, Dubai is working on a project where a single biometric will be used for check-in, immigration, and boarding.
In a press conference held on Tuesday, officials from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) said Dubai International Airport would implement biometric technology in the future to identify individuals based on their unique physical or behavioural characteristics.
The use of biometrics will increase airport passenger numbers and eliminate the need for immigration counters, creating a smooth, seamless travel experience.
Two years have passed since we started working on this biometric project. The idea behind this is to make passenger journey faster, easier and seamless using one biometric. For example, passengers coming for check-in will use the same biometrics in immigration, lounge and boarding the aircraft. We call it a smart journey. In the future, we may not see classic counters to what we see now,” said Major General Obaid bin Suroor, deputy director-general of GDRFA.
The Khaleej Times visited the new contactless smart travel system, which enables passengers to travel without presenting their identification papers, in February 2021. Major General Obaid said this new technology would be rolled out “very soon.”
Major General Obaid was speaking at a press conference announcing the upcoming International Conference on Policymaking: The Future of Ports. Slated to commence on September 19, the two-day event will take place at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, with participants from Asia, Europe, the US and UAE taking part in the forum.
37% of passengers use smart gates
In order to ensure that Dubai International Airport continues to be one of the best in the world, Major General Talal Al Shangeti, assistant director-general of the GDRFA's Airport Passport Sector, said the agency is working with all stakeholders to improve services.
A seamless journey of passengers will be made possible by iris and facial biometrics, starting with checking in, immigration, security, and boarding.
More than 42 million passengers, including transit, used airports and immigration borders, and 37 per cent of them were using smart gates during the January-June period.
Our goal is to have 80 percent of people using smart gates and other technologies by the end of this year. We hope to achieve this target in a couple of years. We believe Dubai airport will completely deploy biometric technology,” said Major General Talal.
Dubai International currently has 120 smart gates, and the goal is to reach 150 by the end of the year or early next year.