HOW DUBAI AIRPORT EMBRACED INNOVATION TO BOOST PASSENGER EXPERIENCE
E-gate and e-Card
The first e-gate was introduced on August 11, 2002. Emiratis, GCC nationals and residents and citizens of the
33 countries were allowed entry without visas and could clear their passenger data at Dubai International
Airport’s departure and arrival terminals by swiping smart cards through special electronic gates. They did not have to use their passports.
Developed by GDRFA-Dubai in association with the Department of Civil Aviation, the four e-gates, two each at the arrival and departure terminals, enable passengers to quickly process their data without wasting time at counters. The e-gates have been available alongside conventional gates.
First generation smart gates
Phase one: In July 2016, travellers could walk through the smart gates by either using their biometric passport or Emirates ID. Emiratis and residents used their IDs to cross the gates in seconds by placing the ID in a slot, scan their passport and use their fingerprint to open the gates.
UAE Wallet
In June 2017, Dubai announced that passengers departing from Dubai
International Airport could use their smart phones at the smart gates instead of their passports as part of a new service called
Smart UAE Wallet. The new facility reduced departure clearance time to 15 seconds per passenger.
Users could register for the UAE wallet any time before their travel day. After registering, users could present required travel machine-readable bar codes generated within the UAE Wallet app to access airport gates.
New generation smart gates
By September 2017, 25 new-generation smart gates were installed at Terminal
3 to speed up passengers’ movement. Travellers were using their passport and Emirates ID to walk through the smart gates without need of intervention from passport control officials.
Smart tunnel
By scanning the passport and boarding pass or by using Emirates ID, passengers were crossing the passport control zone in a few seconds without the need to stand in queues to get the passport stamped. The “biometric border” walkway takes a 3D scan of people’s faces as they enter the airport and checks it against a digital passport using face-recognition software.
The digital passport, created for the system contains information from the electronic chip in physical passports, as well as additional details, including fingerprints, iris scans and face-recognition data. By 2020, there were 122 smart gates at all terminals of Dubai Airports.
In October 2018, GDRFA-Dubai launched the pilot phase of Smart Tunnel at Dubai Airports’ Terminal 3 to enable Emirates passengers to finish passport control procedures in less than 15 seconds. The initiative, a first of its kind in the world, is currently available to first and business class travellers of Emirates.
As per the new system, the traveller simply has to walk through the tunnel and look at the camera, equipped with biometric recognition technology.
Biometric Passenger Journey
In February 2021, GDRFA-Dubai launched a new project called ‘Biometric Passenger Journey’ in cooperation with
Emirates. The new project has been launched at Dubai International Airport to create a contact-free travel journey and to cut down on queues in light of the
Covid-19 pandemic. The 122 smart gates were updated for passengers to either use their Emirates ID to pass the gates or by just showing their faces.
The new touchpoints, which are now open for Emirates passengers travelling through and from Dubai, allow them to check in, cross the passport control zone and board flights without coming in contact with the airline staff. The smart gates allow passengers to walk through between five to nine seconds only based on the passenger’s movement and steps to finish the procedures.