Dubai airport – contactless walking through immigration using AI

Dubai International Airport (DXB) has launched what is being called the world’s first AI-powered immigration corridor that allows travelers to clear immigration without showing passports, boarding passes, or stopping at traditional counters. Known informally as the “Red Carpet” smart corridor, this initiative—led by the General Directorate of Residency & Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) and Dubai Airports—marks a significant step toward the vision of frictionless, document-free travel.

Dubai International Airport is rolling out the red carpet (in a way) at passport control.

Arrivals at DXB will now be able to complete departure procedures without showing a passport, boarding pass or standing still.

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs Dubai has collaborated with Dubai Airports to introduce the smart ‘red carpet corridor’ at Terminal 3.

It allows 10 people at one time to walk through the smart tunnel at DXB departures, allowing travellers to get through the security process much more quickly.

Artificial intelligence, biometric cameras and integrated flight data are used in the fully automated document-free process to confirm the identity of travelers, verify bookings and process their exit.

Travellers need to register in advance and link their passport details to a biometric photo.

What It Does

  • Document-free exit / immigration: Passengers departing through Terminal 3 no longer need to present physical travel documents during the exit / passport control process. Traditional document checks are bypassed.
  • Simultaneous passage: The system can process up to 10 passengers at once, as opposed to one at a time through standard counters.
  • Speed: Passengers are cleared in about 6-14 seconds through the corridor. It depends on whether it’s during trial or fully operational and what kind of traffic.
  • Biometrics & AI verification: The corridor uses biometric cameras, facial recognition, integrated flight data, and AI algorithms to identify travellers, verify their identity, confirm booking/flight details, and flag any anomalies for manual review.
  • Pre-registration: Travellers need to register once by linking their passport details with a biometric photo (face) so subsequent passages can be seamless.

Dubai’s “Red Carpet” AI corridor is more than just a technological novelty; it exemplifies a shift in how we think about border control, travel convenience, and the integration of identity with AI. For travellers, the potential is huge: fewer lines, less stress, speed. For authorities, a chance to both enhance security and capacity. For airports globally, a signal: the future of immigration may lie in corridors where documents fade into the background, and identity verification becomes seamless and invisible.

Core Technologies

The corridor combines multiple cutting-edge systems:

  • Biometric Identity Recognition
    • Facial Recognition: High-resolution biometric cameras capture a traveller’s face.
    • 3D Liveness Detection: Ensures the face is real (not a photo or mask) using infrared depth mapping.
    • Cross-checking: Matches captured biometrics against the pre-registered passenger database linked to passports and visas.
  • AI & Computer Vision
    • AI models trained on millions of samples detect and verify facial features within seconds.
    • Real-time tracking ensures identity remains consistent as the person walks through.
    • Multi-person recognition: corridor cameras can process up to 10 travellers simultaneously, avoiding one-at-a-time queues.
  • Edge & Cloud Processing
    • Edge AI units near the corridor perform instant recognition to reduce latency.
    • Secure backend systems sync data with GDRFA’s immigration servers and airlines’ Passenger Name Records (PNRs).
    • Cloud systems handle scaling, model training, and updates.

Hardware Infrastructure

  • Biometric Cameras: 4K resolution with IR + depth sensors for liveness detection.
  • Edge AI Servers: NVIDIA Jetson / similar processors for on-site inference.
  • Network Layer: Redundant, high-bandwidth connection to GDRFA’s secure servers.
  • Data Encryption: AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit.
  • Smart Corridor Design: Wide lanes with overhead and side-mounted cameras for unobstructed capture.

Processing Time: 6–14 seconds per group of travellers.

Throughput: ~200–300 passengers per corridor per 10 minutes (vs. ~60 with manual counters).

Accuracy: >98% facial recognition success rate under normal conditions.

Scalability: Designed for multi-terminal expansion (DXB handles 66M+ passengers annually).

Dubai Airports News