Dubai Airport rolls out ‘red carpet’ corridor for arrivals
- Last updated: December 3, 2025 | 10:42 ..
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
The Dubai International Airport (DXB) has started rolling out a “red carpet” corridor to welcome incoming passengers, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, without the need to stop or show documents, for a trial period, coinciding with the 54th National Day, in a world-first move which enhances the travel experience.
A few months ago, Dubai International Airport launched a red carpet service for departing passengers, in a move that was the first of its kind globally and was well received by travellers.
The red carpet lane allows travellers to pass through passport control in seconds, without the need to present any travel documents, with the ability to process up to 10 travellers’ pass at the same time through the smart lane.
The lane relies AI and biometric recognition systems, where data is processed in advance to verify the identity of travellers, and the crossing process is completed without stopping or presenting documents, while special cases are transferred for manual review, maintaining the highest security standards.
Dubai Airports has confirmed that the Red Carpet service, which has transformed the departure process at Dubai International Airport, will be extended to arriving passengers at Terminal 3 within the next two months.
Recently, Majed Al Joker, Chief Operating Officer at Dubai Airports, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow 2025 that the Red Carpet service completes processing in as little as 6 seconds and up to a maximum of 14 seconds.
Al Joker said, “We continually work to reimagine the passenger journey by integrating technology into operations and enhancing the efficiency and productivity of travel procedures,” adding that biometric technologies have played a key role in reshaping processes by integrating, simplifying or even eliminating various steps entirely.
He noted that a significant part of the development work is not visible to passengers, such as the use of artificial intelligence to determine aircraft positioning and rotation, assess aircraft characteristics and analyse operational data in real time, enabling operations teams to make faster and more accurate decisions.