Face-scanning technology to speed up boarding at Gatwick
GATWICK will become the first British airport to permanently use facial recognition technology, in a move that will allow passengers to travel without being checked by staff.
The airport, which conducted several trials in a joint venture with easyJet, will use the face-scanning technology on eight departure gates after the runway extension in 2022.
Heathrow airport is expected to announce similar plans before the end of this year, as executives are understood to be in advanced talks to roll out technology permanently after a £50million trial this summer.
The technology allows passengers to walk through security and on to a plane without queuing to show a boarding pass to staff or for a passport check.
Gatwick airport also uses iris recognition technology, which detects the unique and random patterns of passengers’ eyes from a distance, to determine that passengers have entered the right airport lounges for their flights.
Both projects, part of a wider programme of investment to streamline journeys, had “exceeded expectations”, sources close to the trials said.
Gatwick said that more than 90pc of the 20,000 international passengers who tested the technology found it easy to use and that the trial demonstrated faster boarding of the aircraft for the airline and a significant reduction in queuing time for passengers. A spokesman for the airport said: “One of the major benefits for passengers will be the open gate-room concept that Gatwick will be able to enable with this technology. This will allow passengers to spend more time enjoying the shops or having a last-minute coffee before boarding their flight.”
Airports have increasingly turned to facial recognition technology to improve the passenger experience.
Two years ago, Dubai airport replaced security screening with a virtual aquarium tunnel in which 80 inbuilt cameras scan passengers’ faces.
The top 20 airports in the US will allow passengers to use their faces as a passport by the end of 2021.