Beginning in September 2026, Air Canada passengers flying through Toronto Pearson International Airport can enroll via the airline’s mobile app to access biometric facial verification gates. This initiative aims to streamline boarding processes by replacing physical passport and boarding pass checks with biometric verification.
Biometric Gates Pilot and Enrollment Processes
The pilot features four biometric gates at Pearson: one located in the domestic departures area and three serving U.S.-bound travelers within the transborder zone. Domestic passengers must opt into the program through the Air Canada app before arriving at the gate. At the gate, a live facial image is captured and matched against an identity gallery
maintained by Air Canada, allowing them to bypass traditional document presentation.
For passengers traveling to the United States, biometric enrollment occurs during U.S. preclearance formalities at Pearson. The transborder biometric gates then verify live facial images against records obtained during preclearance, removing the need for separate advance registration.
Technology Providers and System Integration
Dormakaba supplies the physical biometric gate hardware used in this pilot. Middleware connecting the biometric gates to identity management systems is provided by Airsphere and SITA. Air Canada is responsible for the domestic enrollment software and maintaining the traveler identity gallery that supports facial verification.
Voluntary Participation and Airport Context
Participation in the biometric gate pilot is
voluntary, and conventional document checks remain available for all travelers. Toronto Pearson currently processes approximately 47 million passengers annually, with projections estimating growth to 65 million by the early 2030s.
The pilot is part of a broader airport modernization program focused on digital identity and automated processing to accommodate increasing passenger volumes. This initiative follows earlier Air Canada biometric identity pilots linking mobile app enrollment with facial recognition and complements a separate biometric boarding process operating at Calgary Airport.
