Executive summary
Airports and border crossings are under growing pressure. Passenger volumes are rising, security demands are tightening, and the traditional model of document-based identity verification is struggling to keep pace. Biometric technology is increasingly being deployed as a practical response – and the early results are hard to ignore.
- Air traffic is forecast to grow 3.1% annually, adding 4 billion passengers by 2043 – a volume that existing airport infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle.
- 75% of global travellers already prefer biometrics over passports, and 90% would support biometric checks if it reduced their time in security.
- Air New Zealand is piloting a digital ID system that lets travellers load passport data into an app and use it across multiple journey touchpoints, reducing repeated document checks.
- US Customs and Border Protection, powered by iProov’s technology, is processing travellers in under three seconds at eight major airports, cutting wait times by 65%.
- Orlando International Airport is trialling a contactless corridor that identifies passengers in motion using standard camera infrastructure, with no stops or physical scanning required.
As more governments mandate adoption and more operators build out their systems, the focus will inevitably shift from whether this technology works to how responsibly it is being governed. The infrastructure being laid down today will shape how hundreds of millions of people move across borders for decades to come, which makes the policy and ethical conversations happening around it every bit as important as the engineering ones.
Few experiences in life rival the anticipation of a trip abroad. People save for it, plan around it, daydream about it for months on end – the faraway coastline, the unfamiliar food, a few days away from the routine. Then reality tends to intervene at the airport. However exciting the destination may be, international travel still comes with a familiar set of frictions: standing in line with passport in hand, waiting for your turn, answering questions about where you’re going and why, and quietly hoping you are not the person pulled aside for extra screening. In recent years, those moments have become even more burdensome as governments have tightened security in response to terrorism and a wider range of cross-border threats.
Much of the strain traces back to how identity still gets verified at the border. Officers are expected to manually assess physical documents, compare faces, interpret behaviour, and make judgment calls again and again throughout a shift. When someone has examined hundreds of passports in a day, they will inevitably grow tired at some point, and fatigue raises the odds of making an error. Meanwhile, fraudulent passports, stolen documents, and fragmented data across national systems create gaps that slow everything down further. In high-volume environments, these inefficiencies can compound quickly, producing bottlenecks that frustrate passengers and stretch operational resources thin.
Against that backdrop, biometric identification has started to draw serious attention. It offers something traditional verification methods struggle to deliver consistently: near-instant, reliable authentication that does not depend on paper documents, human memory, or guesswork. In the following sections, we’re going to take a closer look at how airports around the world have implemented biometric identification, reveal how travellers feel about it, and explore what it ultimately means for that trip you’ve been planning for a while.
Are biometrics the future of border control?
The growth of air traffic is expected to add 4 billion passengers by 2043, putting additional pressure on already strained airport infrastructure. Could biometrics offer a solution?
Air travel took a significant hit during the pandemic years, but the recovery has been steady and, by most projections, it’s only going to accelerate in the years ahead. According to the International Air Transport Association’s latest 20-year forecast, global air traffic is expected to grow 3.1% year-on-year, a pace that could add roughly 4 billion passengers to the skies by 2043. Travel agencies and tourism boards will take the news gladly. Airports, less so. Much of the world’s airport infrastructure is already stretched thin, and the coming wave of travellers will only make things more difficult.
As we already mentioned earlier, traditional border checks ask a lot of the people running them. Border officials are expected to move people through quickly while maintaining a high level of security, even as traveller numbers rise and threat profiles keep changing, a task made all the more challenging by the manual, time-consuming identity checks that are still employed at the majority of locations. This often results in congested checkpoints, missed connections, and frayed tempers on both sides of the desk.
Advantages of using biometric technology
Biometric technology offers a way to ease some of that pressure, particularly at crowded, space-starved checkpoints where every second counts. Swapping legacy systems and manual workflows for high-throughput biometric solutions enables border agencies and travel operators to increase efficiency, lighten the load on frontline staff, give travellers a smoother passage through the gate, and tighten security in the process. Governments across the globe are starting to take notice, with many now mandating or actively incentivising the adoption of biometric technology across every port of entry.
The interesting part is that travellers themselves are largely on board. IATA’s 2024 Global Passenger Survey found that 75% of passengers prefer biometrics to passports, while 90% would back biometric checks if doing so shortened security clearance. Among those who’ve already experienced biometric systems, satisfaction rates are very high at 84%. What’s more, 62% of travellers globally would happily spend extra on premium services that help them skip the worst of airport congestion, reveals Airport Dimensions’ Airport Experience Research 2025.
“Digital identity could help create a more seamless journey, while also improving security through encrypted data and customer-controlled information sharing.”
Jeremy O’Brien, Air New Zealand’s Chief Customer and Digital Officer
Air New Zealand’s new digital ID offers more seamless travel
Air New Zealand has developed a new digital ID solution that enables travellers to move seamlessly across multiple stages of their journey.
On a typical international journey, a traveller might present their passport half a dozen times before they reach their destination – at check-in, at the gate, at transit points, and finally at arrival. Each of those interactions involves a separate organisation running its own verification process, including the airline, the airport, border agencies, and partner carriers. The result is a journey that often feels less like a connected experience and more like a series of disconnected bureaucratic encounters, each stop adding a little more time and a little more friction.
But Air New Zealand is now testing a different approach. Working with a range of partners, the airline has been developing a digital identity solution embedded directly into the Air NZ app. Travellers can load their passport information into the app, securely share verified identity data at online check-in, and then use that same information to support biometric verification at selected touchpoints along the way. The system can also prefill passport details, flag what documents a traveller will need for their specific trip, and carry verified information across multiple stages of the journey.
At the airport, a live facial scan can be matched against the passport image already shared from the traveller’s digital wallet, a process that takes seconds and removes the need for repeated document inspection. The traveller remains in control of what they share and when. “Our ambition is to make travel easier from start to finish. That means fewer document checks, less time queueing and a smoother experience overall,” explains Jeremy O’Brien, Air New Zealand’s Chief Customer and Digital Officer. “This trial shows how digital identity could help create a more seamless journey, while also improving security through encrypted data and customer-controlled information sharing.”
iProov’s on-the-move biometrics revolutionise the airport experience
Several major US airports have rolled out an innovative on-the-move biometrics solution that enables travellers to cross the border in just a few seconds.
When it comes to the adoption of biometric technology at airports, the United States has moved further and faster than most, which comes as little surprise given the sheer volume of international arrivals it handles each year. Over the past couple of years, the US Customs and Border Protection agency has rolled out two complementary initiatives, Seamless Border Entry (SBE) and Enhanced Passenger Processing (EPP), which are designed to increase the throughput of international passengers and reduce wait times without piling extra work onto CBP staff. Already operational at eight major international hubs, including Miami, Los Angeles, and Houston, both initiatives rely on iProov’s on-the-move biometrics solution to automate identity checks at the point of arrival, which gives CBP officers more room to focus on higher-risk cases and travellers who may need extra assistance.
As a traveller walks toward a checkpoint, a camera captures their facial image and compares it in real time against a trusted government database of passport and visa photos. The whole thing takes place while the person is still moving, and the check is completed in under three seconds. “Travellers are crossing the border in a few seconds, without needing to wait in long lines or fumble for documentation,” explains Andrew Bud, CEO of iProov. “Notably, officers can process families and groups together, including those with children or those using wheelchairs. Better traveller experiences, shorter wait times, higher throughput per officer – a win for all stakeholders.” According to the company, a single checkpoint equipped with iProov’s system can process over 12 people per minute, a substantial step up from e-gates, which typically take 30 to 40 seconds per person.
“The system is so fast that by the time a traveller reaches the desk, their identity has already been confirmed, allowing the officer to simply welcome them into the country,” says Dominic Forrest, Chief Technology Officer at iProov. Since the solution went live at Orlando International Airport in May 2025, wait times have dropped by 65%, and 99% of travellers complete their biometric capture on the first attempt, with many clearing border control in as little as two minutes. “The incredible efficiency of this new system reduces queues and mitigates the risk of missed connections, which allows border officers to optimise the processing of low-risk individuals and dedicate more resources to travellers who may require closer attention,” adds Forrest. The data is kept private at all times; all images are encrypted and sent directly to CBP’s systems, and iProov itself never accesses any of it.
“The combination of face recognition with 3D spatial awareness allows us to track individuals accurately even in complex scenarios, such as overlapping movement, groups travelling together, or tailgating.”
Joey Pritikin, Paravision’s Chief Product Officer
Can biometric corridors eliminate airport queues?
Orlando International Airport is trialling a contactless corridor that allows travellers to verify their identity without having to stop at a gate or produce any documents.
Of all the frustrations that come with air travel, queues rank near the top. According to SITA research, 21% of passengers identify long waiting lines as a top pain point, second only to flight delays and cancellations. While biometrics is widely discussed as a potential solution to this issue, most implementations of the technology still require passengers to pause at a kiosk, hold still for a scan, or present a document for inspection. A new development currently being tested at Orlando International Airport is taking a slightly different approach. Outbound passengers leaving the United States will soon walk through what’s being called a “contactless corridor”. Rather than a gate or a scanner, the corridor is a subtly defined zone fitted with several mounted cameras capable of processing multiple people simultaneously – all while they’re still in motion.
Developed through a collaboration between biometric technology companies Paravision, AiFi, and Embross, the system combines cameras and AI with facial-recognition and movement-tracking software to perform identity verification without requiring anyone to stop or physically interact with a device. The whole process is largely invisible to the traveller. As passengers approach the gate agent, cameras capture their biometrics and rapidly match them against government records and photo databases to confirm both their identity and authorisation to be in the country. The gate agent receives the results on a separate screen and can act on them without interrupting the flow of passengers.
“The Contactless Corridor addresses one of the hardest challenges in biometrics: enabling true frictionless identity verification in real-world environments,” says Joey Pritikin, Paravision’s Chief Product Officer. “It’s not enough to capture a face – you need to understand how people move through space. The combination of face recognition with 3D spatial awareness allows us to track individuals accurately even in complex scenarios, such as overlapping movement, groups travelling together, or tailgating. That consistent awareness is what makes a truly contactless experience possible.” It’s also worth noting that the system runs on standard camera infrastructure, which means that airports don’t need to install visible gates or additional hardware to make it work. Beyond airports, the technology has obvious applications wherever large numbers of people need to move quickly through controlled spaces, such as stadiums, concert venues, and major events.
Closing thoughts
Borders have always been where journeys slow down. You wait in line, hand something over, answer a few questions, and eventually get through. What’s being built now points to something different – a crossing you move through without really noticing it happened. There’s plenty to be gained. Queues get shorter. Fewer people miss their connections. Border officers can spend their time on the travellers who actually need it, rather than working through the same routine checks hour after hour. Encrypted data takes on the job that tired eyes used to do. And passengers, going by the survey numbers, are mostly in favour.
Plenty still needs working out, though. Where does all this biometric data go once it’s been captured, and who gets to keep it? What happens when the system makes a mistake, or works less reliably for some people than others? The bigger hubs can afford the rollout; smaller airports and smaller carriers can’t, and that gap won’t close on its own. Trust matters too – it takes years to build and very little to lose. Those questions deserve as much thought as the technology itself. How they get answered over the next few years will shape the future of travel just as much as how quickly a camera can recognise a face.