Good news for expats, soon passport won't be required for travel via Dubai airport

Dubai: Passengers arriving at the Dubai International Airport can soon fly out without passports, thanks to the use of modern technologies such as biometrics and face recognition.

Initially, the facility will be extended to flyers of Emirates Airlines who use ‘Terminal 3’ on an experimental basis. The same is intended to be launched by the year-end through the Smart Gate system.

Under the new system, fingerprints and face recognition data will be used to know the identity of passengers.

“The new facility will be launched in Terminal 3 of the Dubai airport in November,” said Deputy Director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs (GDRFA) Major General Obaid Muhair bin Suroor.

Electronic Gates will be replaced with Smart Gates to facilitate smooth and hassle-free travel. Since the data of passengers are already available, their profiling can be done even before they reach the airport. The Big Data technology will be utilized to facilitate quick and comfortable travel.

If various airports around the world agree to hand over the complete details of flyers, then lengthy processes like emigration can be completed in a quick time in the future.

The decision in this regard was taken during the Global Conference for Shaping Future Policies of Ports, held at Madinat Jumeirah.