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The international airline industry is currently examining new ways for passengers to check-in and board flights, including the use of mobile phone technology.

As global passenger numbers continue to soar each year, experts in the UK are looking at the potential for passengers to use electronic barcodes transmitted directly to their mobile handset rather than boarding cards with magnetic strips.

Both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are interested in trialling the new mobile check-in and boarding systems, which are already in use at Tokyo Airport, VNUnet.com reports.

Eric Leopold, International Air Transport Association (IATA) spokesman, told the website: 'We believe some UK airlines will have mobile check-in capability by 2008 and magnetic strip boarding passes will be replaced by 2010.

"The biggest challenge is installing infrastructure capable of detecting a barcode.'

In the United States, the Los Angeles Convention Center in California launched an on-site remote baggage check-in and boarding pass facility this week and a similar service is planned for the city's main railway station and the Port of Los Angeles cruise ship terminal.


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