Stansted passengers urged to use biometric gates

14 May 2009

Passengers travelling back to the UK via Stansted airport are being urged to use queue busting facial recognition gates recently installed at the airport.

The new machines, which scan passengers’ faces and check them against their passport photo, are being trialled at the airport to improve border security and cut queues at arrivals.

The facial recognition gates combine added security measures with quicker times at immigration control, speeding up travel for legitimate passengers while making it more difficult for criminals and illegal immigrants to get into the country. Some 160,000 people have used the machines since the trial began in December.

According to the Home Office, the machine takes seconds to scan each passenger’s face against the digital photo recorded in their passport. If there is a match, the automatic gates allow the traveller across the border.

The gates can be used by any British or European passenger who has a new e-passport with an electronic chip.

Similar technology will be extended to ten UK terminals by August 2009, as pledged by the Home Secretary at the beginning of the year, providing British passengers with a faster, secure route through the border.