Dubai seeks faster travel at new terminal in Al Maktoum Airport with emerging technology

Cutting-edge aviation technology from AI to electric aircraft will help to reimagine passengers' journeys through Dubai's new $35bn passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport. A “massive leap” in aviation technology at the new terminal will dismantle the old ways of processing passengers through airports and get rid of choke-points through the hub for faster travel, Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, told The National on Monday. “Airports have a habit of legacy processes but we're determined to engineer this out. There will be huge investments in automation to make the customer service ethos better and to improve the quality of what we deliver. We've only scratched the service of what AI will deliver in this,” he said. “Watch this space. The operating model of the airport will be very different from what we have seen.” A surge in demand for air travel is placing “extraordinary pressure” on existing and new airports, national borders and airline resources, according to an April white paper on biometrics by Sita, an IT provider for the air transport industry. The existing paper-based and manual travel infrastructure and legacy processes “simply won’t be able to cope”, according to the paper. The solution is to leverage the power of facial and fingerprint biometrics to create a smoother and safer air travel experience, it said. Advanced technology will also help to solve other aviation industry challenges such as space constraints, specialist staff shortages and evolving passenger wants. The global demand for travel is rising and biometrics is at the “forefront of this transformation” as the number of air travellers is set to double to 8b annually by 2040, up from 4b in 2019, according to projections by the International Air Transport Association (Iata). Dubai Airports has already made investments in biometric technology to funnel more people through Dubai International Airport faster, with the aim of increasing its capacity to 120m passengers annually.<br/>