Britain is preparing to introduce contactless facial recognition at airport eGates, allowing eligible returning passengers to clear automated border checks without scanning their passports. Birmingham and East Midlands are expected to introduce the upgraded system in the coming weeks, with all 13 airport eGate sites covered by early 2027.
The initial deployment will serve British passport holders. Travelers will still need to carry their passports for airline check-in and boarding; the change removes the document scan at the automated immigration gate, rather than replacing the passport throughout the journey.
Airlines will transmit galleries of passport photographs for British passengers arriving that day to border control at each airport. The gates will compare a passenger’s face with that arriving-passenger gallery. Phil Douglas, director general of Border Force, said the approach narrows the comparison to arriving travelers rather than the entire national passport population.
Passengers whose faces are not recognized will be asked to scan their passports. If that check also fails, they will be directed to a Border Force officer at a staffed desk. The fallback retains document-based and officer checks alongside the new facial matching process.
Douglas told The Sunday Times that contactless processing could be up to 25 percent faster. The current process typically takes 20 to 25 seconds, with document placement and unreadable passport chips contributing to delays. The speed improvement is an estimate for the upgraded process.
The deployment follows a three-week contactless border trial at Manchester Airport in October 2025. The Home Office said passengers typically moved through the trial gates faster and had a better experience. The new schedule takes the approach beyond that initial airport trial.
The system will also be available to eligible children. Britain lowered the eGate minimum age to eight in July. Children must be at least 120 centimeters tall, hold an eligible biometric passport and be accompanied by a responsible adult.
The airport upgrade covers Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted. Border Force intends to extend contactless eligibility beyond British passport holders to other nationalities already permitted to use eGates.
Sources: The Sunday Times, The Independent
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
