Travellers through Dubai International Airport (DXB) will no longer need to remove laptops and liquids exceeding 100ml at security points as the hub rolls out advanced scanners this year.
DXB is investing a “huge amount of money” to upgrade more than 100 hand-luggage security screening machines with the latest technology, Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in an interview.
“This means no shoes off, no liquids out of bags, no laptops out. You literally put your bag on the tray and walk through the security process without stopping. That's going to be a huge improvement in passenger convenience,” he said.
DXB is currently installing the new machines, with about five or six already in place. During the year, it expects to transition completely to the new scanners, which are faster and more capable of detecting threats.
Artificial intelligence will also be used to scan bags and determine if further investigation is needed, making it quicker than manual checks and providing a more “intensive but non-intrusive” security process, he said.
chief executive of Dubai Airports
This means travellers will not need to discard items such as deodorants and creams from their hand luggage and have to buy them again at their destination.
“Soon that will be over and we'll be able to freely travel with all the things we need, which is going to be a huge lift of a burden that's been in place for far too long,” Mr Griffiths said.
Since May 2007, UAE airport passengers have been limited to carrying liquids, aerosols and gels in quantities of 100ml in cabin luggage, in line with international aviation rules at the time.
'No red lights'
The latest move is part of Dubai Airports' push for barrier-free travel. This includes a passport-less immigration process and soon, a passport-free check-in system that uses face recognition cameras as passengers walk through to security checkpoints. “The idea of 'no red lights' is very much an initiative that we're pioneering at DXB,” Mr Griffiths said.
Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects in May 2025 awarded a contract to Smiths Detection, a specialist in threat detection and screening technology, to deliver checkpoint screening at all terminals at DXB.
Scrapping check-in process
DXB is increasingly becoming a test bed for technology that could be rolled out at the terminal under construction in Dubai's second hub, Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC).
One of several technology trials in the pipeline aims to help passengers navigate from kerb to gate while receiving real-time reminders about their flight departures, Mr Griffiths said.
Travellers who dine or shop at duty-free shops will be identified through their transactions, along with their flight destination and time required to reach their gate.
“If you're running short of time, then a polite reminder from the assistant tells you: 'Your flight departs in 22 minutes, the gate is 10 minutes away, you better get a move on' … just to keep people on track and to avoid that trauma of people missing their flights.”
Dubai Airports is also working on eliminating the check-in process at the airport. “When you buy a ticket, that should be it, you should be checked in,” Mr Griffiths said.
The operator also wants to remove the hassle of passengers carrying heavy luggage through the airport.
“What we would really love to see would be the ability to have bags delivered and picked up from various stations on a network throughout Dubai,” Mr Griffiths said. The idea is for passengers to have luggage delivered to their homes or offices.
“If you could check in in Frankfurt and have your bag checked all the way through to DIFC, for example, wouldn't it be wonderful if you don't see your bag until you get to your final destination or it's waiting for you at home or in your office when you return from a trip?” he said.
VIP tunnel for air taxi passengers
With anticipation building over the launch of air taxis in Dubai this year, DXB is one of four locations for the “vertiports” for Joby Aviation's flying taxis.
Construction of that vertiport “is well advanced” and the air taxis will be a “game-changer” in Dubai as it faces increasing road traffic congestion, Mr Griffiths said.
Dubai Airports is studying the use of a tunnel near the vertiport and DXB for VIP transfers.
“If we're able to make it a very slick operation and take people to and from the air taxi and straight on to their flight, that would be a huge uplift in convenience,” he said.
The VIP service would be a “beautiful extension” of the airport's Al Majlis premium services and lounge facility, he added. “We've talked to the air taxi operator about how that might work, I think it will be a really, really good service.”
DWC contracts
DXB is currently reaching the limits of its capacity as travel demand grows and physical infrastructure is bursting at the seams, heightening the need to complete the transition to DWC early in the next decade.
DWC's design master plan has been finalised and various packages will be tendered, Mr Griffiths said, declining to specify the contracts' value or type of work. Dubai is “on track” to deliver the next phase of DWC by 2032, he added.
“We've got about another 20 million we can accommodate at DXB, but once we've got that to [a total of] 115 million annual passengers, that's about the limit of what we think is possible before the transition to DWC needs to happen.”
In 2025, DWC reported 30 per cent growth in flights and handled 1.4 million passengers.
