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How to avoid long border control queues at the airport

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

From Cosmopolitan

  • A new report reveals how airport customers can decrease wait times at boarder control - and it's not good news if you like to have a drink on the plane.

  • Apparently, being hungover and having facial hair are known to cause a hold up at passport security, and decrease e-machines' productivity.


Look, we know that nobody likes airport security. It's boring, takes an age, and adds precious minutes to the time before you get to go home and lie on the sofa / go on holiday and lie on the sunlounger.

But it's a necessary evil, and one that Feel Good Contacts insists can be improved by passengers taking a number of steps to increase the chance of your ePassport gate working. According to their research, the most common reasons people's machines don't work and they're forced to go to airport security is because they're hungover, tired, or have facial hair.

Research claims being tired or hungover can alter the appearance of your face and make it more difficult for technology to match up your features, while facial hair can obscure parts of your face.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

Kevin Smith, Head of Technology at facial recognition specialist Credas, said: "Improvements in technology now mean that around just one per cent of passengers fail ePassport tests. However, this does mount up when you consider the sheer amount of passengers passing through the terminals of the UK’s airports on a daily basis.

"Facial recognition is no doubt one of the most important developments in airport security in recent years, but it’s important to remember that errors can still be made, particularly if a passenger’s passport photo is particularly old."

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

The research found that in a year, this works out to over 9,000 hours of delays across UK airports, so it pays to not to have that drink on the plane, or to look as similar to your passport photo as possible, basically.

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