20/02/2026 - Blog post

AI and 3-D Screening Move From Pilot Projects to the Heart of Airport Security

Artificial intelligence and three-dimensional screening technologies are rapidly moving from research labs and pilot projects into everyday use at major airports, reshaping how passengers, baggage and staff are screened around the world.

From Dubai to the United States, and from university research centres to security-technology suppliers, a new consensus is emerging: volumetric imaging combined with AI-driven analysis is likely to become the backbone of next-generation aviation and border security. Dutch-based inspection specialist InsTech Netherlands is among the companies watching this shift closely—and actively contributing to it—as airports and border agencies reassess how they handle rising passenger volumes and evolving threats.

At the centre of this transformation is 3-D imaging. Computed tomography (CT) scanners for cabin baggage and microwave or millimetre-wave panels for people screening are now capable of producing rich volumetric views instead of traditional flat, 2-D X-ray images. That change is more than cosmetic. It allows security operators – and increasingly, AI algorithms – to see inside cluttered bags and complex geometries, including non-metallic items that might previously have been missed or required time-consuming manual inspection.

Dubai International Airport is one of the most visible examples of this shift. The hub has begun rolling out advanced 3-D baggage scanners across its terminals, with the goal of completing deployment by 2026. The new machines are designed to let passengers leave laptops and liquids inside their bags while still generating detailed volumetric images for inspection, a combination that promises both higher security assurance and smoother checkpoint throughput at an airport expecting tens of millions of travellers each year.

In the United States, researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have been working on 3-D microwave imaging systems that screen people as they walk past an array of antennas, reconstructing a 3-D representation of the body and any concealed objects within tens of milliseconds. That work has been commercialised in the form of the HEXWAVE system, which some major airports are now procuring for employee and perimeter screening. The technology aims to deliver contactless, walk-through scanning that can detect both metallic and non-metallic threats without forcing individuals to stop, pose or remove layers of clothing.

While the hardware delivers the imagery, artificial intelligence is increasingly responsible for making sense of it. Academic projects such as the STING-BEE vision-language model, developed to interpret X-ray baggage images containing multiple threat categories, are pushing the boundaries of what automated analysis can do. By combining image understanding with language-based threat descriptions, such models are designed not only to flag suspect objects but also to classify and contextualise them – a step towards more explainable, auditable AI systems in security environments.

In parallel, AI is being applied to broader screening and surveillance challenges across the airport environment. Behavioural-analytics systems monitor passenger flows, movement patterns and crowding to highlight anomalies or potential risks. Sensor-fusion platforms combine 3-D scans, CCTV feeds and other inputs to support so-called “seamless screening” concepts, in which the traveller experiences fewer interruptions even as security teams gain a more detailed, data-rich picture of what is happening in and around checkpoints.

Industry analysts note that, taken together, these developments signal that the underlying technology is now mature enough for large-scale deployments. For airport operators, the potential benefits are multifold: higher detection performance, reduced false alarms, shorter queues and a smoother passenger journey that no longer revolves around removing laptops, liquids and shoes at every checkpoint. For regulators and security agencies, volumetric imaging and AI offer new tools to address emerging threats such as 3-D-printed weapons or novel liquid explosives.

However, the transition is far from plug-and-play. Airports considering AI-enabled 3-D screening must contend with infrastructure constraints – from the footprint of new machines to power and ventilation needs – as well as operator training and change-management challenges. Regulatory alignment remains a particular sticking point. While some authorities have moved quickly to approve 3-D scanners and automated threat recognition software, global standardisation has not kept pace with technological progress, leading to uneven passenger experiences from country to country.

The implications extend well beyond aviation checkpoints. Ports and land borders are beginning to apply the same principles to cargo, vehicles and containers, using volumetric imaging systems and AI-based threat-recognition engines to scan high volumes of traffic with fewer manual interventions. Here, providers such as InsTech Netherlands are already active: the company’s CT systems for container inspection and parcel inspection generate true 3-D images for large cargo streams and smaller consignments alike. These systems bring airport-style volumetric imaging to freight and logistics environments, enabling operators to virtually “slice” through containers or parcels from any angle and to feed those rich datasets directly into AI analytics.

That combination of CT-based 3-D imaging and AI is positioning InsTech Netherlands as one of the frontrunners in global inspection technology. By offering both large-scale container CT and high-resolution parcel and baggage CT in a unified portfolio, the company aims to give aviation, port and express operators a consistent technology base across very different screening environments – from airside luggage belts to truck lanes and cross-dock hubs.

At stadiums, rail hubs and other mass-transit or public-gathering sites, walk-through 3-D systems similar to HEXWAVE are being discussed or trialled as a way to increase security without creating additional bottlenecks at gates and entrances. In these contexts, lessons learned from cargo CT and airport CT – especially around image quality, automated detection and throughput optimisation – are feeding into new generations of people-screening solutions.

For technology providers, the challenge is to turn this momentum into practical, deployable solutions that fit into real-world operations. InsTech Netherlands, headquartered in the Netherlands and focused on aviation, port, border-control and public-safety markets, positions itself within this shift as an integrator of advanced inspection technologies. The company promotes architectures in which AI modules are built into high-resolution 3-D scanners rather than bolted on, so that threat detection becomes a native function of the imaging system whether it is scanning a suitcase, a parcel or a full shipping container.

InsTech Netherlands also highlights the importance of secure, well-governed data flows and regulatory compliance, particularly in Europe, where privacy, data-protection and emerging AI rules must be taken into account alongside aviation-security and customs standards. For airports and agencies that still rely heavily on 2-D scanners, the company advocates phased upgrade paths: for example, starting with AI-enhanced 3-D lanes in selected checkpoints, or deploying 3-D CT for high-risk cargo channels, while legacy systems continue to operate during staff retraining and regulatory validations.

Post-deployment, performance monitoring is another focus area. Measuring real throughput gains, changes in detection rates and the impact on false alarms is essential to building confidence among regulators, operators and passengers alike. In that context, modular designs that allow AI models and software components to be updated over time – without replacing entire fleets of scanners – are likely to be increasingly attractive to budget-conscious operators in both passenger and cargo environments.

If there is a single theme tying together developments in Dubai, MIT’s research labs, U.S. airport deployments and European technology suppliers, it is that AI and 3-D imaging are no longer speculative add-ons to traditional security infrastructure. They are emerging as central pillars of how airports, ports and border crossings will manage risk in the coming decade.

For now, the industry still faces questions about standardisation, interoperability and public acceptance of more data-intensive screening methods. But the direction of travel is clear: as passenger numbers continue to rise, cargo flows grow and threat landscapes evolve, operators are increasingly looking to AI-driven 3-D screening as a way to reconcile higher security demands with the expectation of fast, seamless journeys and efficient trade.

InsTech Netherlands, along with leading research institutions and technology partners worldwide, expects that the coming years will see this new generation of inspection solutions move from headline projects to everyday reality – not just in aviation, but across the wider public-safety, logistics and critical-infrastructure landscape.