Delta Goes Paperless In Cincinnati
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James Ott/Cincinnati jott@aviationweek.com
Delta unveiled paperless boarding Tuesday at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport under a program that allows travelers to acquire electronic boarding passes on their Web-enabled telephones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) for access all the way to the gate.
Cincinnati became the seventh airport where paperless boarding is now available in the Delta system. It is available at 20 U.S. airports. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, where pilot studies were conducted, is unique in that four airlines are participating and using the same scanning device at McCarran's D Security Checkpoint. Most other programs involve one airline and one security checkpoint.
Travelers can receive and store the boarding pass image on their phones or devices when they check in by computer in advance of their flights. The image contains a two-dimensional bar code along with passenger and flight information. Imbedded in the bar code is a secure key that scanners look for. If anyone tampers with the encryption, scanners have the capability to detect it.
The bar code display also will work with kiosks and can prompt a print out of a baggage tag.
"Travelers can go from the very front of the airport through the whole process without any paper whatsoever," says Samuel Ingalls, the assistant director of aviation, information systems, at McCarran Airport.
The program was launched by the International Air Transport Association, which developed a standard for the two-dimensional bar code.
The bar codes will eventually replace magnetic strips and eliminate the need for paper tickets, the association says. Savings in paper and probably personnel and other efficiencies could be as high as $1.5 billion a year, according to IATA. It is looking for 100% compliance by the end of 2010.
Photo credit: Delta Air Lines
