Dubai's immigration authority plans to extend its "Red Carpet" passport system to every airport in the emirate, after more than 1.3 million passengers used the service by the end of the third quarter of 2026.

Colonel Khalid bin Madia Al Falasi, Assistant Director General of the Digital Services Sector at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) Dubai, outlined the expansion plan on Monday. The authority says eligible passengers can complete passport procedures in 3.4 seconds, without stopping and without presenting documents.

The numbers so far

According to GDRFA Dubai, 1,311,598 people had used the Red Carpet system by the close of the third quarter. Digital content about the project has also drawn around four billion views across online platforms, which the authority reads as a sign of wide public interest in the service.

That user figure is modest next to the traffic Dubai's airports handle, since Dubai International alone moves tens of millions of passengers a year. It suggests the service is still in a build-up phase, and that the planned expansion is meant to widen access considerably.

How the Red Carpet works

The Red Carpet is a smart corridor developed by GDRFA Dubai with Dubai Airports. It relies on biometric identification and AI-driven systems to recognise travellers as they walk through, removing the need to hand over a passport or boarding pass at a counter. The corridor can handle up to ten passengers at the same time, which is a major change from the one-person-at-a-time model of traditional passport control.

The system was first introduced at Dubai International's Terminal 3 for business-class departures. Airport authorities have said they plan to extend the corridor at Terminal 3 so that it serves both departing and arriving passengers.

Recognition at home

The project has already won attention in Dubai. In October, the Dubai-it Award in the government category was presented to the Red Carpet project by the General Directorate. According to Khaleej Times, the award announcement said the system had increased capacity tenfold and achieved a passenger satisfaction rate above 99 per cent.

On clearance times, figures vary by source and measure. Earlier coverage of the system at Dubai International cited passport control in as little as six to 14 seconds. GDRFA Dubai's latest figure of 3.4 seconds refers to eligible passengers who pass through without stopping or showing documents.

Why it matters for travellers

Dubai's aviation sector has long competed on speed and convenience, and immigration is one of the few remaining points where a journey slows down. Cutting that step to a few seconds, and moving it from a manual process to a walk-through one, has benefits beyond comfort. Fewer queues free up space and staff time, and they reduce pressure on terminals during peak periods.

For visitors, the plan to spread the service across all of the emirate's airports, which include Dubai International and Al Maktoum International, would make the experience more consistent. A traveller would no longer need to know which terminal or hall offers the faster route.

Questions that remain

Several practical details were not part of the figures reported on Monday. The criteria for being an eligible passenger, the timetable for reaching each airport, and the arrangements for travellers who are not enrolled have not been spelled out in the headline numbers. As with any biometric service, questions about data handling and enrolment will matter more as the system widens. Travellers planning to use the Red Carpet should check eligibility with GDRFA Dubai or their airline before relying on it for a tight connection.

A model for border management

Dubai has promoted the Red Carpet internationally as an example of what it calls proactive government services. The corridor has attracted visiting delegations from other immigration authorities, and GDRFA Dubai has showcased it at travel-industry events. A wider rollout would give the authority a larger body of real-world data to point to when it presents the system abroad.

For now, the message from Monday's announcement is straightforward. A service that began in a single business-class hall is set to become a standard feature of passport control across Dubai's airports, and the authority's own numbers say that more than a million passengers have already walked through it.