Dubai is planning to eventually scrap physical airport desks, with the process being completed either online or in the customer’s home. It comes after Emirates last year revealed a ‘Home Check-in’ service where airline staff will collect luggage and issue boarding passes away from the airport before the flight.
Flyers can then head directly to immigration at the airport without having to worry about checking in or dropping their bags. Speaking to Aviation Business about boarding passes, Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said: “What we want is to eliminate them altogether. “Soon, I don’t think you’ll need to check-in using any physical token of booking. Most of it will be done at the time of booking the in office or home. We just need to find a way of dealing with baggage and I think technology is moving towards that area too.”
It’s not the first exciting technological development at Dubai’s airports, with officials announcing earlier this year that smart gates will soon be able to screen travellers’ health. The system will use thermal cameras to recognise whether a patient is sick through body temperature by scanning their face and body.
If a passenger is in ill health coming into the country, it will then share this data with the Ministry of Health and Prevention so they can start taking care of the traveller.
