Emirates boss Tim Clark predicts huge change to airports in future

No paper documents and no queuing at security while you try to figure out the correct things to take out of your carry-on bag.

That is what the future of flying will look like, according to Emirates president Sir Tim Clark.

“It’s the biggest hassle of flying these days, especially if you’re going on an hours journey; you’re at the airport three hours before going through a difficult time,” he said.

The airline boss has worked in the industry since 1972 and has seen immense change during that time.

While visiting Australia on Friday, news.com.au asked Sir Tim what the future would look like.

“I expect every airport to be designed completely biometrically driven,” he said.

The idea is that facial recognition, which is already being used at airports, and other technologies will be more heavily relied on to identify and screen passengers all the way through the airport.

“Right the way through to the boarding gate there will be no paper, there will be no central search: bags, handbags, everything out etc, because the machines themselves will look at what you’re carrying and they’ll know you, because AI will store you,” Sir Tim said explaining the plan.

“You don’t regularly travel with half a tonne of cocaine in your handbag and you don’t have this and you don’t have that, so in the end the ability to move through an airport curbside to boarding the plane will be so compressed.

“The beauty about it is and what pays for it is that the longer dwell time you have in the airport, because you’ve dropped check in queues and you’ve dropped central searches, you empty your pockets at the fast food and merchandising operations in the airports where they really make their money.”

Sir Tim said he wants to see the need to check in scrapped and travellers walking through a security frame without even knowing it.

When it comes to boarding the plane, he predicts the technology will be able to scan your face and only let a passenger through if it is their time to board.

While it sounds quite futuristic, Sir Tim insists it is very possible and not too far away.

“I know technology will get us there … probably in the next three to five years we should be at the stage where computing power allows us to do all this kind of stuff without any problem at all,” he said.

The plan is something Sir Tim says Emirates, based in Dubai, has been really pushing for.

“In Dubai today we are checking people in, processing them through immigration, processing them through boarding gates without any paper at all, so the technology exists,” he said.

“It’s whether or not the manufacturers believe there is a business case to invest in and we say there is.”

He also said police, customs and other authorities need to be “absolutely sure” the technology will catch out any bad guys.