Landing in the UK is about to involve one less fumble at the border. A new contactless eGate system lets eligible travellers walk up to the gate, have their photo taken, and walk through if the facial recognition matches their verified immigration and travel records — no passport scan required. Testing shows the process is up to 25 per cent faster than the traditional passport-on-the-reader method, though that applies to the gate itself rather than the whole arrivals queue.

East Midlands Airport is the first out of the gate, with Birmingham also confirmed among the early adopters. The rollout will spread across the country over the coming months, eventually reaching the 13 airports that currently operate eGates — Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stansted, Luton, London City, Newcastle, Bristol, Cardiff and more. The Home Office frames it as the first step toward fully contactless border crossings.

For now, the technology is limited to British citizens at East Midlands, but eligibility will widen to other nationalities as it expands. Australians can already use standard UK eGates, so they're likely candidates for the contactless version down the track.

What changes in practice? You no longer need to dig out your passport and line it up on the scanner. The live photo is checked against existing records and security checks happen automatically. If the system can't verify you, you'll be asked to scan your passport or speak to a Border Force officer — staff will still be on hand monitoring the gates.

Two things that haven't changed: you still need to carry your passport at all times, and the UK's Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme is unaffected — anyone who needs one must still arrange it before flying. The Home Office also suggests dual British nationals travel on a valid British passport, or carry a Certificate of Entitlement, to avoid holdups at the border.

There's a family bonus too. The contactless gates build on a recent change that extended eGate access to children aged eight and above, which Border Force says should make arrivals easier for travelling families.

For anyone flying into the UK, this is a small but genuinely noticeable improvement after a long-haul flight — especially if you're arriving at Heathrow or Manchester in peak season. Just be aware it's a phased rollout, so the experience will vary from airport to airport in these early months, and don't ditch the passport just because you didn't need to scan it.