Singapore airport plans to completely replace passports with biometric technology

Singapore's Changi Airport intends to fully remove the need for presenting a travel document from their travel procedure by 2024.

As reported by Euronews, one of Asia's busiest travel hubs plans to replace the time-intensive passport check procedure with automated immigration and boarding processes making use of biometric technology and facial recognition.

Changi Airport is a dynamic travel hub and has processed over 5 million passengers in August this year, which is why local authorities decided to revise procedures in order to increase efficiency and speed.

“Biometrics will be used to create a single token of authentication that will be employed at various automated touchpoints, from bag-drop to immigration and boarding”, Josephine Teo, the country’s communications minister said, adding, that the innovative approach will "reduce the need for passengers to repeatedly present their travel documents at these touchpoints, allowing for more seamless and convenient processing”.

Passengers will still need to carry their travel documents in order to board and land in their destination countries after taking off from Changi, which is consistently being rated as one of the best airports in the world.