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As global air passenger traffic is forecast to hit 10.2 billion in 2026, a 3.9 percent year-on-year increase, investments have been pouring in to improve airport infrastructure and operational efficiency and use artificial intelligence to achieve it.

Working with data released by Airport Council International, airports are relying on the increasing use of AI to embrace the rise in demand.

AI is now being embedded in airports’ workflows to reshape everything from passenger flow management to airside maintenance, cybersecurity, lost luggage and enhancing on-site and virtual customer experiences, according to analysts and experts at the Airport AI Exchange event this month during discussions of the technology’s existing use and its potential.  

The use of AI-powered analytics to anticipate congestion at security, immigration and boarding points is also helping to prevent delays. Resources are being allocated to shift from reactive crowd management to predictive operations.

AI-powered baggage optimisation tools and biometric processing – which would allow passengers to walk through immigration without the need to present a physical passport – are also gaining traction as airports seek to improve passenger experience while maintaining operational efficiency.

“AI started changing very rapidly in 2017 and initiated this entire AI race and enabled us to really use AI, the neural network that we talked about and heard about since the 1940s,” Amad Malik, chief AI officer at Airport AI Exchange, said.

“Since then, the progressions have been very, very steep. If you look at the curve from the first day to now, AI is able to do so much more. In only the last two years, the ability has grown exponentially.”

What are airports using AI for?

In addition to quicker immigration controls, analysts said AI is aiding automated check-ins and boardings, baggage handling and tracking, and predictive maintenance. It is also enhancing passenger experience, providing security screening, and offering personalised services and assistance, they said.

AI-powered analytics can enable airports to tailor services and experiences to individual passenger preferences, fostering a more personalised and efficient journey from check-in to boarding, according to Mahmood AlSeddiqi, former vice president of IT for the Bahrain Airport Company.

While insights shared at the Airport AI Exchange suggested AI has advanced at an exponential pace over the past few years, some argue that aviation’s adoption of the technology has remained comparatively limited.

“AI has progressed exponentially over the past few years, but compared to that curve, aviation’s use of AI is still negligible,” said Malik, adding that that gap is partly explained by the sector’s reliance on legacy systems and its inherently cautious operating model.

Much of the technology still underpinning aviation operations dates back decades and innovation is often slowed by the industry’s safety-critical nature, he said.

The remains of the final Israeli captive have been returned from Gaza. For months, the Israeli government has cited the remaining bodies of captives as a reason for limiting crossings, delaying aid deliveries and slowing the implementation of the agreed ceasefire. With this justification now gone, what will change for Palestinians in Gaza?

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Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili and Melanie Marich, with Tamara Khandaker, Tuleen Barakat, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Alexandra Locke. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhemm. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

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Al Jazeera has condemned YouTube’s compliance with an Israeli law banning the network’s livestreams in the country, warning that the move signals how major tech companies can be “co-opted as instruments of regimes hostile to freedom”.

YouTube’s submission to Israel’s ban became apparent on Wednesday, days after Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi ordered a 90-day extension of an existing ban on the network’s operations in Israel, blocking broadcasting and internet companies from carrying the network’s content.

On Thursday, with livestreams of Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Mubasher blocked in Israel, the network denounced YouTube for failing to uphold the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

“Such principles mandate that global tech companies ensure freedom of expression and resist government pressures that lead to the withholding of the truth and the silencing of independent journalism,” it said in a statement.

“The Network stresses that this escalation is part of a broader and systematic pattern of Israeli violations, including the killing and detention of its journalists and the closure of its offices in the occupied territories, aimed at suppressing the truth.”

Israel has killed more than 270 journalists and media workers since it launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

Some have been from Al Jazeera, including correspondent Anas al-Sharif, 28, who was killed with three of his colleagues in an Israeli strike on a media tent in Gaza City in August.

In May 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, weeks after the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a “threat to national security”.

In September that year, Israeli forces stormed Al Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, confiscating equipment and documents and closing the network’s office.

In December last year, the Israeli parliament approved an extension of the 2024 law, called the “Al Jazeera law”, for two more years.