Travellers departing from Singapore Airport will now be able to travel without passports as the airport introduces an automated immigration system.

This morning, ministers in Singapore announced that one of the world's busiest airports, Changi Airport, will swap passports for biometric data – taken from fingerprint scans and facial recognition technology.

The technology is set to be introduced in 2024, but on Moncrieff this afternoon, travel correspondent Eoghan Corry said Government agencies are not enthusiastic about the change.

"The aviation industry and the airports are all gung-ho for it," he said.

"When you look at the technology that's possible through airports, facial recognition, there is technology there that would mean that you wouldn't even need to produce a boarding pass or passports.

"You won't even need to get to the top of the queue, you'll be identified in the queue.

"All the details will be processed and you just walk through the gate."

Singapore

In countries like Shanghai and China, passengers will still be required to have virtual visas, Eoghan said.

"Thankfully, we've got one of the most powerful passports in the world – there's only a couple of countries we still need paper visas for," he said.

"Once you have that online done in advance, they have something to identify you by."

The technology

Eoghan said the level of technology that is available will not be easily fooled.

"Getting through airports has become so much easier," he said.

In airports in Australia, Eoghan said passport control is now entirely automated.

"You just slip the passport in, it looks at you to make sure that you are who you are," he said.

"Occasionally randomly people are picked for a second check – they do that to make sure the system is working.

"But you walk through the gates instead of the big long queue we used to have at the end of a 21-hour flight."