Dubai’s biometric “Red Carpet” service processed more than 439,000 travellers during the first half of 2026, as the emirate continues to expand its use of artificial intelligence and biometric technology to streamline airport border procedures.
Figures released by Dubai’s General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA Dubai) show that 439,321 travellers used the Travel Without Borders – Red Carpet service between January and June 2026.
The service allows eligible arriving and departing passengers to complete immigration procedures by walking through a designated corridor without presenting travel documents or interacting with an immigration officer.
Powered by artificial intelligence and biometric recognition technology, the system is designed to process multiple passengers simultaneously rather than requiring travellers to move through immigration one at a time.
GDRFA Dubai said the Red Carpet service has reduced average border processing time to 3.4 seconds per traveller, compared with 12.5 seconds under previous procedures. The system can process up to 10 travellers simultaneously.
The latest figures come after the Red Carpet project marked its first anniversary in May 2026. At the time, GDRFA Dubai said that nearly 800,000 travellers had used the service since its launch.
The Red Carpet forms part of Dubai’s wider Smart Travel ecosystem. During the first six months of 2026, more than 9.4 million travellers used the emirate’s integrated digital travel services, including more than nine million passengers who completed immigration procedures through Smart Gates.
While biometric technology has been deployed at airports worldwide for check-in, security and boarding, Dubai’s approach is notable for seeking to remove the traditional stop-and-check process at border control.
Rather than requiring a passenger to approach a gate, present a passport and wait for clearance, the Red Carpet is designed to verify eligible travellers as they move through the corridor.
The latest usage figures suggest that the technology is continuing to move beyond an initial demonstration phase, although Smart Gates remain by far the larger component of Dubai’s digital border processing system.
As airports explore how biometrics, digital identity and artificial intelligence could reshape the passenger journey, Dubai’s Red Carpet is increasingly becoming a high-profile example of how identity verification could shift from a series of individual transactions to a more continuous process.
We will be exploring this project in more detail during International Airport Review’s upcoming webinar ’Smart Airports: Turning digital transformation into operational reality’, where Ersin Inankul, Senior Vice President - Business Technology at Dubai Airports will be speaking alongside panellists Santiago Andrade, IT and Telecoms Director, Quito International Airport and Gaurav Gupta, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sales, Travel & Transport, IDEMIA Public Security. Register for the webinar today to ask the panellists your burning questions.
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