We recently published the biannual release of our Smart Airports Market Tracker. For those who may not be familiar, the Tracker is a highly granular service that tracks the implementation of hardware solutions including eGates, kiosks, pods and totems, bag drop units and associated identity management platforms across nearly 4,000 airports globally. The Airports and Borders team have been working tirelessly to ensure the accuracy and capture of recent and historic installations to allow our clients an unparalleled insight into the market, allowing them to undertake competitive analysis and identify potential sales opportunities.
As airports race to improve their existing systems and automate the passenger journey, the implementation of biometrically-enabled hardware is the next logical step towards creating a truly seamless passenger journey. While some regions have been more inclined than others, the new era of passenger processing will rely heavily on biometrics to access increased operational efficiencies and heighten the passenger experience. The chart below provides a snapshot of the current state of the market, highlighting tracked biometrically-enabled solutions and non-biometrically enabled solutions currently deployed, split by region.
Figure One: Number of Biometrically Enabled Solutions vs. Number of Non-Biometrically Enabled Solutions by Region
The Smart Airports Tracker reveals where investment is happening in real time while simultaneously highlighting how differing regions in the world are approaching biometrics for identity verification, self-service and passenger flow. From the chart above, we can see that the penetration of biometric solutions is proportionally greatest in North America, whilst the total installed base of biometrically enabled solutions is highest in Europe and Asia Pacific. As such, we expect a steady increase over the next 10 years due to initiatives promoting the use of biometric technology like the EU-EES across Europe and DigiYatra in India.
What Does the Data Say?
The Smart Airports Tracker service is granular to its core, breaking down individual contracts by the original equipment manufacturer, systems integrator, type of solution, passenger touchpoint, total number installed, biometric modality, location and date of installation. As of July 2025, we’re excited to share that the service currently breaks down 2,058 unique contracts across the world’s airports, up from 1,800 in the prior release in December 2024; a notable increase of 14.3%. At Valour Consultancy, we estimate that the Smart Airports Tracker currently identifies and records the following:
- 76.9% of self-bag drops, up from 76.3%
- 73.2 of pre-security eGates, down from 77.7%
- *91.8% of lounge eGates, down from 204.8%
- 76.2% of boarding eGates, down from 79.1%
- *124.7% of immigration kiosks, up from 76.8%
- 99.5% of ABC eGates, up from 92.6%
- 75.8% of boarding pods and totems, up from 47.1%
- 77.5% of immigration and border control pods and totems, up from 71.6%
- 27.9% of check-in kiosks, up from 25.1%
(please note that all previous figures are from the December 2024 release)
*These percentages relate to the number identified and recorded in the Tracker, compared to the actual market estimates in our report, “The Seamless Passenger Journey in Smart Airports“. For pre-security eGates, ongoing research has found the actual volume to be much greater, and whilst many of these have been captured in the tracker, it has resulted in a lower percentage recorded. Conversely, lounge eGates were found to be in smaller volumes than previously estimated, whilst the surge of EU EES kiosks in airports has resulted in a percentage in excess of 100% of our previous estimate.
Out of the 258 new contracts that were added into the tracker, 117 were identified as belonging to the border control touchpoint (roughly 45.3% of new additions) falling into the eGate, kiosk and pods and totems product categories. While there are multiple reasons as to why this may be the case, we identified that many of the new additions were hardware systems that were installed in preparation of the EU-EES that is slated for a phased-roll out, pegged to kick off for operations in Q4 2025. We’ve recently captured large scale installations of ABC eGates and immigration kiosks in countries like Italy, which saw delivery of over 400 kiosks and 30 eGates across 12 airports, while Thales installed its eGates and kiosks across Belgium and IDEMIA installed its eGates and kiosks across Danish airports. With the installations of EU-EES hardware dating back to 2020 and 2021, the potential for a ‘second wave’ of installations is an enticing one, with multiple reasons as to why this could become a reality in the upcoming years. Firstly, in some countries, EU-EES solutions have been sitting dormant, installed and ready, but not in use. This could lead to the eventual refresh of idling hardware, or the need to upgrade their solutions as newer, more effective models are released to the marketplace. Also, another reason could be due to countries realising that their initial systems are overwhelmed and not able to handle the sheer volume of passengers upon the launch of the system, leading to the potential for a second wave of eGates, kiosks and pods and totems being placed to further supplement and streamline processes and increase overall operational efficiencies.
What’s Next?
Looking forward, the airports and borders team at Valour Consultancy aims to continue to increase its coverage of the self-service market in airports across the world. Whilst we are proud of our strong position in the market, we have previously identified the gap in our coverage of global check-in kiosks, and although the number is rising with each edition of the tracker, we are aiming to further strengthen the number that we have captured through communication with leading vendors and supplementary secondary research. Similarly, we aim to further increase the coverage of global boarding pods and totems in the tracker. With the industry shifting towards biometrically-led processes across the airport journey, we forecast the steady increase in the global installed base of boarding pods and totems across the next 10 years and aim to capture new installations accordingly. Alongside the planned areas of improvement in our coverage, we aim to continue to develop the usability of the tracker. This can be evidenced by the introduction of the ‘Smart Airports Dashboard’ that we have recently integrated. This is allowing users to easily filter for specific information and present it in a chart format, making the data more digestible and presentable.
There are a variety of benefits that clients are eligible to receive by engaging with us. Companies that do so are able to have their products and solutions accurately addressed and presented in the tracker, while also qualifying for discounts on yearly subscription fees. Currently, we are working with a multitude of industry leading vendors, systems integrators and experts. If this of any interest to you, or you would like to learn more about the service and how it can level up your business strategy and decision making, please contact us to learn more, request a sample dataset or schedule a product demonstration with the team.
About Us
Valour Consultancy’s Airports and Borders team focuses on identifying and analysing the developments within airports in the modern world. It offers syndicated research reports across multiple topics including:
- The Seamless Passenger Journey in Smart Airports – 2025
- Smart Borders 2025 – The Future Evolution of Land, Air and Sea Borders
- The Future of Airport Security and Baggage Solutions
- The Digitisation of Travel Authorisations, Credentials and eVisas
Please press on the associated link if you are interested in finding out more regarding the scope of a report or if you are interested in participating in the research phase; there are a multitude of benefits to doing so.
