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A boarding pass or boarding card is a document provided by an airline during
airport check-in Airport check-in is the process whereby an airline approves airplane passengers to board an airplane for a flight. Airlines typically use service counters found at airports for this process, and the check-in is normally handled by an airline ...
, giving a passenger permission to enter the restricted area of an airport (also known as the airside portion of the airport) and to board the airplane for a particular flight. At a minimum, it identifies the passenger, the flight number, and the date, and scheduled time for departure. A boarding pass may also indicate details of the perks a passenger is entitled to (e.g., lounge access, priority boarding) and is thus presented at the entrance of such facilities to show eligibility. In some cases, flyers can check in online and print the boarding passes themselves. A boarding pass may be required for a passenger to enter a secure area of an airport. Generally, a passenger with an
electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, and ...
will only need a boarding pass. If a passenger has a paper
airline ticket An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a ''paper ticket'', whi ...
, that ticket (or flight coupon) may be required to be attached to the boarding pass for him or her to board the aircraft. For "connecting flights", a boarding pass is required for each new leg (distinguished by a different flight number), regardless of whether a different aircraft is boarded or not. The paper boarding pass (and ticket, if any), or portions thereof, are sometimes collected and counted for cross-check of passenger counts by gate agents, but more frequently are scanned (via barcode or magnetic strip) and returned to the passengers in their entirety. The standards for bar codes and magnetic stripes on boarding passes are published by the
IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
. The bar code standard (
Bar Coded Boarding Pass A boarding pass or boarding card is a document provided by an airline during airport check-in, giving a passenger permission to enter the restricted area of an airport (also known as the airside portion of the airport) and to board the airp ...
) defines the 2D bar code printed on paper boarding passes or sent to mobile phones for electronic boarding passes. The magnetic stripe standard (ATB2) expired in 2010. Most airports and airlines have automatic readers that will verify the validity of the boarding pass at the
jetway A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...
door or boarding gate. This also automatically updates the airline's database to show the passenger has boarded and the seat is used, and that the checked baggage for that passenger may stay aboard. This speeds up the paperwork process at the gate. Once an airline has scanned all boarding passes presented at the gate for a particular flight and knows which passengers actually boarded the aircraft, its database system can compile the passenger
manifest Manifest may refer to: Computing * Manifest file, a metadata file that enumerates files in a program or package * Manifest (CLI), a metadata text file for CLI assemblies Events * Manifest (convention), a defunct anime festival in Melbourne, Aus ...
for that flight.


Bar-codes

BCBP (bar-coded boarding pass) is the name of the standard used by more than 200 airlines. BCBP defines the 2-Dimensional (2D)
bar code A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly refe ...
printed on a boarding pass or sent to a mobile phone for electronic boarding passes. BCBP was part of the IATA Simplifying the Business program, which issued an industry mandate for all boarding passes to be bar coded. This was achieved in 2010. Airlines and third parties use a
barcode reader A barcode reader is an optical scanner that can read printed barcodes, decode the data contained in the barcode to a computer. Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor for translating optical impulses into e ...
to read the bar codes and capture the data. Reading the bar code usually takes place in the boarding process but can also happen when entering the
airport security Airport security includes the techniques and methods used in an attempt to protect passengers, staff, aircraft, and airport property from malicious harm, crime, terrorism, and other threats. Aviation security is a combination of measures and hum ...
checkpoints, while paying for items at the check-out tills of airport stores or trying to access airline lounges. The standard was originally published in 2005 by
IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
and updated in 2008 to include symbologies for mobile phones and in 2009 to include a field for a
digital signature A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very high confidence that the message was created b ...
in the mobile bar codes. Future developments of the standard will include a
near field communication Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be u ...
format.


Security concerns

In recent years concerns have been raised both to the security of the boarding pass bar-codes, the data they contain and the
PNR A passenger name record (PNR) is a record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that contains the itinerary for a passenger or a group of passengers travelling together. The concept of a PNR was first introduced by airlines that n ...
(Passenger Name Record) data that they link to. Some airline bar-codes can be scanned by mobile phone applications to reveal names, dates of birth, source and destination airports and the
PNR A passenger name record (PNR) is a record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that contains the itinerary for a passenger or a group of passengers travelling together. The concept of a PNR was first introduced by airlines that n ...
locator code, a 6-digit
alphanumeric Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric ch ...
code also sometimes referred to as a booking reference number. This code plus the surname of the traveller can be used to log in to the airline's website and access information on the traveller. In 2020, a photograph of a boarding pass posted by former Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...
on
Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
provided sufficient information to log in to
Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...
's website. While not in and of itself problematic as the flight had happened in the past, the website (through its source code) unintentionally leaked private data not intended to be displayed directly, such as Abbott's
passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...
number and Qantas's internal PNR remarks.


Paper boarding passes

Paper boarding passes are issued either by agents at a check-in counter, self-service kiosks, or by the airline's web check-in site. BCBP can be printed at the airport by an ATB (Automated Ticket & Boarding Pass) printer or a direct thermal printer, or by a personal inkjet or laser printer. The symbology for paper boarding passes is
PDF417 PDF417 is a stacked linear barcode format used in a variety of applications such as transport, identification cards, and inventory management. "PDF" stands for Portable Data File. The "417" signifies that each pattern in the code consists of 4 ...
. IATA's Board of Governors' mandate stated that all the IATA member airlines would be capable of issuing BCBP by the end of 2008, and all boarding passes would contain the 2D bar code by the end of 2010. The BCBP standard were published in 2005. It has been progressively adopted by airlines: By the end of 2005, 9 airlines were BCBP capable; 32 by end 2006; 101 by end 2007; and 200 by end 2008 (source: IATA).


Mobile boarding passes

Electronic boarding passes were 'the industry's next major technological innovation after
e-ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, and ...
ing'. According to SITA's Airline IT Trend Survey 2009, mobile BCBP accounted for 2.1% of use (vs. paper boarding passes), forecast rising to 11.6% in 2012.


Overview

Many airlines have moved to issuing electronic boarding passes, whereby the passenger checks in either online or via a mobile device, and the boarding pass is then sent to the mobile device as an SMS or e-mail. Upon completing an online reservation, the passenger can tick a box offering a mobile boarding pass. Most carriers offer two ways to get it: have one sent to mobile device (via
e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
or
text message Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
) when checking in online, or use an airline app to check in, and the boarding pass will appear within the application. In many cases, a passenger with an iPhone can download the boarding card generated from the airline's app into the Apple Wallet app. A passenger with an Android smartphone can do the same with the Google Pay app. This way the passenger does not need to open the airline's dedicated app and shortly before the flight, the boarding card appears on the home screen. Furthermore, a mobile boarding cards can be loaded into smart watches through the phones they are paired with. The mobile pass is equipped with the same
bar code A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly refe ...
as a standard paper boarding pass, and it is completely machine readable. The gate attendant simply scans the code displayed on the phone. IATA's BCBP standard defines the three symbologies accepted for mobile phones:
Aztec code The Aztec Code is a matrix code invented by Andrew Longacre, Jr. and Robert Hussey in 1995.* The code was published by AIM, Inc. in 1997. Although the Aztec Code was patented, that patent was officially made public domain. Click "images" the ...
,
Datamatrix A Data Matrix is a two-dimensional code consisting of black and white "cells" or dots arranged in either a square (geometry), square or rectangle, rectangular pattern, also known as a matrix (mathematics), matrix. The information to be encoded ...
and
QR code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
. The United Nations
International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
expected mobile phone subscribers to hit the 4 billion mark by the end of 2008.


Airlines using mobile boarding passes

In 2007,
Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started o ...
(now
United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
) first began testing mobile boarding passes. Today, most major carriers offer mobile boarding passes at many airports. Airlines that issue electronic boarding passes include: In Europe, Lufthansa was one of the first airlines to launch Mobile BCBP in April 2008. In the US, the
Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...
runs a pilot program of a Boarding Pass Scanning System, using the IATA BCBP standard. *On October 15, 2008, the TSA announced that scanners would be deployed within a year and scanning mobile BCBP would enable to better track wait times. The TSA keeps adding new pilot airports: Cleveland on October 23, 2008. *On October 14, 2008, Alaska Airlines started piloting mobile boarding passes at Seattle Seatac Airport. *On November 3, 2008, Air New Zealand launched the mpass, a boarding pass received on the mobile phone. *On November 10, 2008, Qatar Airways launched their online check-in: passengers can have their boarding passes sent directly to their mobile phones. *On November 13, 2008, American Airlines started offering mobile boarding passes at
Chicago O'Hare Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busine ...
. *On December 18, 2008, Cathay Pacific launched its mobile Check-in service, including the delivery of the barcode to the mobile phone. *On February 24, 2009, Austrian Airlines begun offering paperless boarding passes to customers on selected routes. *On April 16, 2009, SAS joined the mobile boarding pass bandwagon. *On May 26, 2009, Air China offered its customers to receive a two-dimensional bar-code e-boarding pass on their mobile phone, with which they can go through security procedures at any channel at Beijing Airport Terminal 3, enabling a completely paperless check-in service. *On October 1, 2009, Swiss introduced mobile boarding pass to its customers. *On November 12, 2009, Finnair explained that "The mobile boarding pass system cuts passengers’ carbon footprint by removing the need for passengers to print out and keep track of a paper boarding pass". *On March 15, 2010, United began to offer mobile boarding passes to customers equipped with smartphones. *In July/August 2014, Ryanair became the latest airline to offer mobile boarding passes to customers equipped with smartphones.


Benefits

* Practical: Travelers don’t always have access to a printer, so choosing a mobile boarding pass eliminates the hassle of stopping at a kiosk at the airport. * Ecological: Issuing electronic boarding passes is much more environmentally friendly than constantly using up paper for boarding passes.


Drawbacks

*Using a mobile boarding pass is risky if one's phone battery dies (rendering the boarding pass inaccessible) or there are any problems reading the e-boarding pass. *Using a mobile boarding pass can also be a challenge when traveling with multiple passengers on one reservation, because not all airline apps handle multiple mobile boarding passes. (However, some airlines, like
Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines is a major American airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is the sixth largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the numb ...
, do allow users to switch between multiple boarding passes within their apps.) *Some airlines (and even a few government authorities) may still require some paper portions of the boarding cards to be retained by staff. This is obviously not possible with a mobile boarding card. *Some airlines need to stamp a boarding card after performing document verification checks on some passengers (e.g. Ryanair). Some airport authorities (e.g. Philippine immigration officers) also stamp the boarding card with the departure date. Passengers in turn have to present to staff their stamped boarding card at the gate to be allowed to board. As such, airlines may not extend the mobile boarding card feature to all its passengers within certain flights.


Print-at-home boarding passes

A print-at-home boarding pass is a document that a traveller can print at home, at their office, or anywhere with an Internet connection and printer, giving them permission to board an airplane for a particular flight. British Airways CitiExpress, the first to pioneer this self-service initiative, piloted it on its
London City Airport London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...
routes to minimize queues at check-in desks, in 1999. The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) approved the introduction of the 3D boarding pass in February 2000. Early adoption with passengers was slow, except for Business Travellers. However, the advent of low-cost carriers that charged for not using print-at-home boarding passes was the catalyst to shift consumers away from traditional at-airport check-in functions. This paved the way for British Airways to become the first global airline to deploy self-service boarding passes using this now ubiquitous technology Many airlines encourage travellers to check in online up to a month before their flight and obtain their boarding pass before arriving at the airport. Some carriers offer incentives for doing so (e.g., in 2015, US Airways offered 1000 bonus miles to anyone checking in online,), while others charge fees for checking in or printing one's boarding pass at the airport.


Benefits

*Cost efficient for the airline – Passengers who print their own boarding pass reduce airline and airport staff, and infrastructure costs for check-in *Passengers without baggage to drop do not have to drop by the check-in desk or self-service check-in machines at the airport and can go straight to security checks. Exceptions for this may be international passengers that require document verification (e.g. those that require a visa for their destination).


Problems

*Passengers have to remember to check-in in advance of their flight. *Passengers need to have access to a printer and provide the paper and ink themselves or find printing points that already have them, to avoid being charged to print their boarding passes at the airport. Affordable access to printers equipped with paper and ink one can use to print one's boarding pass can be difficult to find while travelling away from home or their offices, although some airlines have responded by allowing passengers to check-in further in advance. Additionally, some hotels have computer terminals that allow passengers to access their airlines' website to print out boarding cards or passengers can email the boarding cards to the hotel's reception which can print it out for them. *Some kinds of printers such as older dot matrix printers may not print the QR barcode portion legibly enough to be read accurately by the scanners.


Print-at-home boarding pass advertising

In a bid to boost
ancillary revenue Ancillary revenue is revenue that is derived from goods or services other than a company's primary product offering. Examples include concessions at sporting events, baggage handling or seat selection revenue received by airlines, restaurant revenue ...
from other sources of
in-flight advertising In-flight advertising is advertising that targets potential consumers aboard an airplane. It includes commercials during in-flight entertainment programming, advertisements in in-flight magazines or on Boarding Passes, ads on seatback tray tabl ...
, many airlines have turned to
targeted advertising Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting. These traits can either be demographic with a focus ...
technologies aimed at passengers from their departure city to their destination. Print-at-home boarding passes display adverts chosen specifically for given travellers based on their anonymised passenger information, which does not contain any personally identifiable data. Advertisers are able to target specific demographic information (age range, gender, nationality) and route information (origin and destination of flight). The same technology can also be used to serve advertising on airline booking confirmation emails, itinerary emails, and pre-departure reminders.


Advantages of print-at-home boarding pass advertising

*Ability to use targeted advertising technologies to target messaging to relevant demographics and routes – providing travellers with offers that are likely to be relevant and useful *High engagement level – research by the Global Passenger Survey has shown that on average, travellers look at their boarding pass over four times across 12 keytouch points in their journey *The revenues airlines gain from advertising can help to offset operating costs and reduce ticket price rises for passengers


Concerns of print-at-home boarding pass advertising

*Some passengers find the advertising intrusive *The advertising uses additional quantities of the passenger's ink when printing at home


See also

*
Airline ticket An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a ''paper ticket'', whi ...
* Auto check-in *
Secondary Security Screening Selection Secondary Security Screening Selection or Secondary Security Screening Selectee, known by its initials SSSS, is an airport security measure in the United States which selects passengers for additional inspection. People from certain countries a ...
(SSSS rating)


References


Bibliography


Qantas boosts mobile device check-in options

Northwest Airlines offer E-Boarding Pass functionality for their passengers

Vueling: Now You Can Use Your Mobile as a Boarding Pass!

Lufthansa offers mobile boarding pass worldwide



Qatar launch mobile boarding pass service

Mobile Boarding Pass Innovation Takes off with Qatar

TSA Expands Paperless Boarding Pass Pilot Program to Additional Airports and Airlines


* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25cmPCAu2tA Spanair extend their mobile boarding pass service


External links


The Latest Development of paperless boarding pass technology

International Air Transport Association (IATA)
{{Commercial air travel Airline tickets Civil aviation Encodings Automatic identification and data capture