Biometric eGates Deployed as NEOM Goes Full Steam Ahead

Biometric passenger screening technology has been deployed at the NEOM airport, where it was recently inspected by Lieutenant General Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al Yahya, Saudi Arabia’s Director General of Passports (Jawazat).

NEOM is the Kingdom’s ambitious new urban development project, envisioned as a high-tech, sustainable outpost in the country’s northwestern region. It’s a flagship component of a digital transformation program dubbed “Saudi Vision 2030”.

The implementation of a biometric passenger screening system at such a venue would likely have been seen as a necessity, given its increasing adoption across a number of airports around the world. At NEOM, the automated system is reportedly contactless, enabling a smooth travel experience for NEOM visitors.

The self-service e-Gate system is the result of a collaborative effort between Jawazat, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), and the National Information Center, among other government bodies. It isn’t clear which vendor or vendors may have been involved in providing the biometric technology used.

The recent inspection and its publicization are likely meant to reaffirm the Kingdom’s marketing of NEOM, which took a PR hit last month with the emergence of a Bloomberg report indicating that authorities were scaling back on their ambitious plans. In particular, it was reported that “The Line”, a glass-enclosed city in NEOM that would stretch 105 miles, would be reduced in size to just 1.5 miles by the time of its 2030 inauguration.

But in recent days, Saudi Economy Minister Faisal Al Ibrahim has pushed back, asserting to CNBC that for all NEOM projects, “the intended scale is continuing as planned.”

Sources: Arabian Business, CNBC

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May 6, 2024 – by Alex Perala