Virgin Air, Quantas may launch eco-friendly air tickets

14 October, 2007:

It's now the turn of airlines to be environment friendly. Airline companies are reportedly considering reduction of paper use in their operations.

According to reports, two airline majors, Qantas and Virgin Air, are weighing options to go eco friendly with plans to reduce paper use by shifting to mobile phone boarding passes for flights.

Significantly, the two airline companies came out with a decision in this regard close on the heels of the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) decision to set up a global standard to allow bar codes to be used as boarding passes. The IATA standard will use a single type of cheap and readily available scanner that can read existing codes from Europe, North America, and Japan.

When the new feature is put in place, buyers of air tickets would provide their mobile phone numbers to the airline when they book a flight. The airline would then send the buyers an SMS containing the two-dimensional bar code that can be stored on the phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA). The bar code on the phone or PDA screen is then checked by airline staff and confirmed boarding the plane

The International Air Transport Association had for long been considering to bring in a global paperless ticketing system by 2007. The initiative is expected to save close to USD$3 billion in printing costs. With the plan now set in motion, the IATA would be able to put into practice the use of a bar code boarding pass system by year 2010.