Boarding a plane without an agent to inspect or take your pass has arrived in the USA.
Continental Airlines has confirmed it’s testing the procedure at a gate in its hub at Houston Intercontinental. It’s the first experiment at what’s called “self-boarding” in the U.S.
In self-boarding, passengers — much like customers of the New York City subway — swipe their boarding passes at a kiosk reader at the gate. That opens a turnstile or door to the jet-bridge. Although an agent isn’t there to take the pass, one is typically present to handle other customer service tasks.
Continental declined to provide further details on its experiment. The Transportation Security Administration says self-boarding doesn’t jeopardize security because all passengers are screened before they get to departure gates.
Self-boarding is the latest in a series of new technology steps airlines are taking to automate getting on a flight. Among others: check-in kiosks that print out boarding passes and boarding pass bar codes e-mailed to smartphones.
Self-boarding has been common at foreign airports for several years. If the rate of adoption abroad is any indication, it could proliferate here.
Last year, 14 airlines worldwide were using self-boarding gates, including Air France, Korean Air, Japan Airlines and Air New Zealand, according to the International Air Transport Association. The airline trade group has been pushing members to embrace the practice and develop standard technology. German airline Lufthansa started using its “quick boarding gates” in 2003. All its gates at Frankfurt and Munich are now automated.
To do this, airlines need to use boarding passes with so-called two-dimensional bar codes, which contain more traveler information than magnetic strips or traditional bar codes, IATA spokesman Steve Lott says. Airlines have agreed to phase out magnetic strips by the end of the year.
Lufthansa spokesman Martin Riecken says that while loading customers at self-boarding gates…