- UK Border Force will introduce facial recognition at two airports, Birmingham and East Midlands, in the coming weeks.
- The first phase is for British passport holders; the upgrade is planned for 13 UK airports by early 2027.
- Passengers still need their passports for check-in and boarding; travelers whose faces are not matched can use the usual scan process.
UK Border Force plans to introduce facial recognition at airport e-gates, starting at Birmingham Airport and East Midlands Airport in the coming weeks. The change begins at two sites.
The first version is intended for British passport holders arriving in the UK. The wider rollout is expected to reach all UK airports with the gates by early 2027.
Passengers will still need their passport for check-in and boarding, even if they can pass through the arrivals gate without scanning it. The change applies at the border.
Airlines are expected to send Border Control images from the travel documents of British passengers scheduled to arrive that day. The gate will compare a live image with that gallery instead of asking travelers to scan the document at the gate.
Airlines will send arrival-day photo galleries to Border Control
The process shifts the document check from a traveler-held scan at the gate to a comparison using images supplied ahead of arrival. Border Force is upgrading the gates to make that face match.
The new arrangement is being described as a “contactless border.” It is intended as a queue-cutting change at arrivals, though travelers will still need to carry the document used for their journey.
If the system does not recognise someone, the traveler is expected to use the usual scan process. The existing gate remains the fallback.
The planned upgrade covers 13 UK airports
The rollout plan names 13 airports. Birmingham and East Midlands are due to receive the upgrade first; the other locations are expected to follow by early 2027.
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cardiff
- East Midlands
- Edinburgh
- Gatwick
- Glasgow
- Heathrow
- London City
- Luton
- Manchester
- Newcastle
- Stansted
The list covers airports across the UK, not just the first two launch sites. The system is initially limited to British passport holders.
Travel documents remain necessary for the rest of the journey
The new gate process does not replace the checks travelers face before departure. They must continue to carry their passport for airline check-in and boarding.
Nor does the change guarantee that every British traveler will pass without scanning a document. The normal scan method remains available when the face match fails.
That distinction separates the airport arrival procedure from the rest of the trip: the gate is changing, while the travel-document requirement continues. The trial is not a general waiver of document checks.
Existing gate eligibility rules still apply to other travelers
The initial launch is for British passport holders. Other travelers who already qualify to use UK gates remain subject to the current eligibility conditions, according to UKCISA.
Those groups include EEA and Swiss citizens, as well as eligible document holders from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. Travelers must meet the applicable biometric-document, age, height and digital-status requirements.
The longer-term plan is to extend the new process to other nationalities already permitted to use the gates. That expansion is separate from the first launch, which is limited to Britons.
Manchester hosted a trial in 2025
The system was trialled successfully at Manchester Airport in 2025. The trial preceded the planned introduction at Birmingham and East Midlands.
The face-matching system now moves from that trial toward wider use at arrivals. The rollout is expected to cover the remaining named airports by early 2027.
