Mobile check-in coming in to land

Paper boarding cards could soon be a thing of the past: checking in with mobile phones has received the official thumbs-up from the airline industry.

Aviation industry body the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has announced a new standard for check-in with mobiles, using 2D barcodes. The codes will use existing formats popular in the Europe and Japan - Aztec, DataMatrix and QR.

The Iata hopes airlines will soon be able to send the barcodes containing check-in details direct to travellers' phones using MMS or via a link contained in an SMS. Passengers will then be required to present their phones, with the barcodes read from the screen using handheld scanners.

The Iata intends to replace 100 per cent of magnetic strip boarding cards with barcodes by 2010 and believes the changeover will save the airline industry around $500m per year.

In the coming months, the Iata plans to begin developing "standardised processes and guidelines" so members can implement the technology.

Some airlines have already adopted check-in technology similar to that proposed by Iata, including Air Canada and Germany's DBA.

Jo Best writes for ZDNet Australia