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Join Which? TravelContactless passport control coming to an airport near you
UK travellers will soon enter the country using their faces as ID – but will it speed up queues?
Trevor Baker has almost 20 years experience as a travel writer, having lived in Spain before becoming an award-winning investigative journalist.
East Midlands has become the first UK airport to scan passengers’ faces, rather than their passports, at border control.
UK passport holders arriving at East Midlands Airport now walk up to the eGate and, instead of placing their passport on a scanner, have their photo taken.
Birmingham Airport is expected to introduce the same technology shortly, with other UK airports following in early 2027.
Airports around the world, including in Japan, Singapore and Dubai, already use similar systems.
It could be the first step towards entirely contactless passport control, with passengers’ faces being scanned as they pass through the terminal.
Who will use the new, contactless eGates?
All UK citizens aged eight and over (and at least 120cm tall) should be able to use the new gates. If the system doesn't recognise them, they can scan their passport as before, or they'll be directed to a border guard.
It’s expected that the system will then be rolled out to visitors from countries that can currently use eGates (EU, Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, Japan and South Korea, among others).
How will the new contactless eGates work?
As currently, when you book a flight, you provide your passport details to your airline. The airline then passes them to Border Force at your destination airport.
The system will automatically compare your facial scan against the data held by Border Force before opening the gate.
The only difference now is that you won’t need to scan your passport at border control.
Will this make border queues quicker?
The UK Home Office says its testing has shown that queues are 25% quicker.
In our annual airports survey last year, we asked passengers how long they waited at passport control, and it was typically 12-20 minutes on average. Read our guide to airport fast track for more data on security and passport queue times.
For Birmingham Airport, the figure was 20 minutes, so the implication is that contactless border control could make queuing time around five minutes quicker.
Does airport facial recognition raise concerns over civil liberties
The changes make relatively little difference to the data collected and stored by the government. You must submit a photo to be issued a UK passport.
However, some civil rights campaigners have concerns about facial recognition being used as the standard method of proving identity. They argue that use at airports normalises a technology that's not yet properly understood by the public. There have been errors and discrimination issues in the past when it’s been used in other areas, such as policing.
What happens when the technology fails?
There’s a long history of IT failures and technology breakdowns at airports. In May 2024, eGates stopped working at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Edinburgh, Bristol and Luton.
The disruption lasted several hours and caused long queues, as passengers had to be processed manually.
Airports that rely on facial recognition technology may have fewer Border Force staff, and this becomes an issue when failures occur.
While airlines have a legal duty of care for passengers – including covering food, drink and hotel expenses where necessary – this is not the case for airports or Border Force.
