ATL expands facial recognition boarding to all international flights
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) will expand facial recognition boarding to all international flights starting in July 2025. Previously available only for Delta Air Lines passengers, the biometric boarding system will soon cover all airlines operating international departures from ATL, with full rollout expected by November.
Under the system, passengers board using facial recognition technology instead of presenting passports or boarding passes. According to ATL Chief Information Officer Chris Crist, the technology speeds up the boarding process, saving valuable seconds per passenger. Delta first introduced facial recognition at ATL in 2016 on select international routes and later expanded it across its network.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates the biometric matching system. Once a passenger checks in, CBP collects existing photographs from passports, visas, and previous travel records to create individual galleries for comparison. When passengers board, new photos are instantly matched against their personal gallery, allowing for real-time verification without accessing the entire government database.
Through the first four months of 2025, 2.3 million passengers boarded international flights at ATL, up 5.5% year-over-year. In 2024, the airport handled 7.3 million international departures, making efficiency improvements critical for passenger flow.
Crist emphasized that neither ATL nor Delta retains any facial data locally, and passengers may opt out and board using traditional documents. ATL, the world’s busiest airport in 2024, continues expanding its international reach, including new Etihad flights to Abu Dhabi starting July 2, 2025.
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