E-gate access to be expanded at UK airports to include younger children

Families travelling through UK airports have been able to move faster through passport control since the rules around electronic passport gates were updated to include younger children.

Under the previous system, only passengers aged 12 and over could use the gates, meaning families with younger children had to queue at staffed passport booths instead — often the slower of the two options at busy times. That changed when the eligibility age was lowered to 10, allowing children aged 10 and 11 to use the e-gates for the first time.

The national rollout followed successful trials carried out at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, with Border Force testing whether the technology could reliably match the faces of younger children to the photo in their passport. The change applies across 293 e-gates at 15 air and rail ports in the UK, including major airports and Eurostar terminals.

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E-gates use facial recognition technology to check a passenger’s face against the photo stored in their biometric passport. The process usually takes between 10 and 20 seconds per passenger once they reach the gate, though queue times vary significantly depending on time of day — peak early morning arrivals can mean waits of 15 to 30 minutes, while off-peak periods can be virtually queue-free.

The decision to lower the age threshold balances two competing concerns. On the one hand, e-gates rely on facial recognition that traditionally struggled with younger children because their faces change as they grow. On the other, Border Force has been clear that there are safeguarding concerns to consider — including the risk of child smuggling — when allowing children to clear the border without a face-to-face check with an officer.

Speaking when trials were first launched, Border Force director-general Phil Douglas said the move was about striking a balance between helping families avoid long queues and making sure safeguarding processes continued to work.

For drivers working airport runs — both private hire and taxi — the practical impact is on turnaround times. Faster passport processing for families with younger children means less time spent in arrivals halls, which translates to quicker pick-ups and shorter waits in airport holding zones. With UK passenger numbers continuing to grow and arrivals expected to exceed pre-pandemic peaks at several major airports, anything that speeds up the flow through immigration is good news for ground transport operators.

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The current rules still require children under 10 to use staffed border control, and Border Force officers may ask for evidence of parental consent — such as a signed letter from an absent parent — when a child is travelling with someone who is not obviously their parent, including grandparents, step-parents or school group leaders.

The wider direction of travel for UK borders is towards more automation. Since June 2025, the EU’s Entry/Exit System has begun rolling out across European airports, and from 25 February 2026 the UK has fully enforced its own Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme for visitors from non-visa countries. A separate UK-EU agreement is also opening up more European e-gates to British passport holders, with several major airports including those in Germany, Portugal and Spain already operating biometric border systems compatible with UK travellers.

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