Singapore’s Changi airport is set to go passport-free next year to implement automated immigration clearance, and we are well and truly living in the future.

The new clearance system will allow passengers to depart the city-state without passports, using only biometric data. For those who haven’t read 1984, biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics.

Biometric authentication is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify individuals and groups that are under surveillance.

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This form of data collection is already in use in some areas of the airport, but the upcoming changes will reduce the need for passengers to repeatedly present their travel documents at touch points and allow for more seamless and convenient processing. 

While the Orwellian bells may be ringing, for frequent travellers to and from Singapore, the convenience of passport-free processing could be a game changer. Changi airport serves over 100 airlines and in June of this year, handled 5.12 million passengers. 

The giant airport is often heralded as one of the best in the world, complete with indoor waterfalls, vertical gardens, sky-high playgrounds for kids and adults. The ‘destination in itself’ will be adding another terminal to accommodate the growing number of travellers passing through over the next two years.

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