Cardiff Airport introduces facial recognition

Cardiff Airport is the latest to introduce the facial recognition system for arriving passengers. The new style passport control will be open to holders of UK and European passports that have the biometric chip that have been issued since 2006. It will measure the facial features of the holder against the digital picture on their passport and move the process along quicker. It will be a voluntary system that can take only seconds to confirm a passenger’s identity and is already in operation at Manchester, Bristol and Stansted.

The separate gates for travellers will be operated by the UK Borders Agency and Cardiff Airport. So far trials have been going well at the other UK airports and the time from arrival to exit has been greatly increased. For the time it will only be a trial and further checks by passport control have been happening to see how well the system does. The aim is to make one of tightest security borders in the world even more secure by using the latest technology.

Security at airports has been tight ever since the 9/11 attacks on New York, and recent activity on possible terrorist plots to blow up planes. Travel dropped after these incidents, but the level of traffic is again increasing and putting more pressure on airport security to handle passport control. At peak periods in UK airports queues can sometimes take a long time to get through. This new system will help everyone arriving and hopefully cut waiting times massively, even as it strengthens the security systems.