Dubai Airport Freezone Authority

Now, first and business class travellers will not need passports to get through Dubai International Airports.

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai launched the pilot phase of Smart Tunnel at Dubai Airports’ Terminal 3 to enable passengers to finish passport control procedures in 15 seconds.

All travellers have to do is simply walk through the biometric recognition system without having to stamp their passports.

The tunnel works on face recognition technology and the passenger can finish entry procedure within 15 seconds without the need for human intervention.

Dubai Airport is the world’s third busiest airport.

How will the automatic registration system work

>Passengers’ iris and facial recognition features will be recorded and stored on the system automatically on their first entry through Dubai Airports.

>On their second visit onwards, they will not need to go through eye scan again

>The passport control system compares the iris patterns of all arriving passengers in real-time against an enrolled central database

>This helps the authorities to identify people who have already been banned from entering the UAE

>The new system will complete the eye scan while passengers are walking through the passport control counter

Smart systems at Dubai Airports

Smart Gates: Four Dubai Airports terminals have a total of 122 Smart Gates that allow residents scan their documents and complete the passport control procedures. In addition, visitors who are eligible for visa-on-arrival have an option to register their biometric passports at the passport control counter and use Smart Gates. Emiratis, GCC nationals, foreigners having a UAE residence visa and visitors who get a visa-on-arrival are eligible to register for the smart services and use the Smart Gates.

Smart Tunnel: In its trial phase, the Smart Tunnel at Terminal 3 facilitates passport control procedure within 10 seconds as passengers have to simply walk through the tunnel without showing or scanning the travel document. Currently, it is open to business and first class passengers only.

Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) has reduced business set-up cost by up to 65 per cent, as part of its aim to increase DAFZA’s regional competitiveness and activate a number of key sectors by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

Reduced business costs

DAFZA has revisited and reduced registration, licence, and staff visa fees for new investors by 65 per cent, 33 per cent, and 20 per cent, respectively. Establishment card issuance fees have been cut by 17 per cent, while fees for Board Resolution and MOA issuance have been waived.

The new incentives include facilitating the process of obtaining general trading licenses for new investors by halving the capital requirement from Dh1 million to Dh500,000. DAFZA has also allowed its member companies to be structured as a Limited Liability Free Zone Company (FZ-LLC), in a bid to provide more flexibility in business setup, licensing and operation.

In addition, DAFZA has waived licence expiry fines in an effort to relax the terms of license renewal. Allowing the restoration of legal records and licenses, the decision will help investors renew their expired license without paying any late renewal fines.