Fast tracking your arrivals process - Stansted Airport News

Airport news for Stansted on 14/05/2009.

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Stansted and Manchester airports have been trialing a face recognition scheme straight out of the space age. Instead of standing in long queues at immigration desks when re-entering the UK, British and European passengers carrying an e-passport with a small microchip in the back can enter a fast track line where a computer scans their face.

The computer system uses the digital picture in the passenger’s passport and then scans the travellers face to check they are the same person. Appearances can change over time but the system marks points on the human face which do not change.

The UK border agency said that over 160,000 passengers had used the system at Stansted Airport since its introduction in December of 2008. The special fast track gate also undertakes security checks for persons on watch lists.

The previous scheme used at many UK airports was the IRIS recognition system which scans a passenger’s eye and matches it when they return to the UK and that was also using a special queuing system. Unlike that scheme this needs no previous registration and passengers qualifying can simply walk up to these new gates but many travellers are still being randomly checked the old fashioned way at least while trials are running.

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