Late last year, you may remember the Canadian man who used his iPad to enter the United States. Gaining access to the country via digital identification raised many questions about the future of travel, and now news sources are calling mobile boarding “the wave of the future.”

An article in the Huffington Post paints a very modern picture of the airport of the future, which involves the taking away of old inconveniences rather than the addition of anything new or modern.

Airports are expected to eventually lose the check-in desks, offering self-service bag drops and touch points where further access is gained by scanning an NFC-enabled smartphone. And this technology will eventually eliminate the need for long queues at security checkpoints, with passenger’s biometric information being “picked up by automated surveillance cameras.”

Reportedly, 80% of the top 50 airlines have plans to implement this technology within the next two years, yet only 27% expect the new systems will actually be rolled out in that time frame.

What are the hold-ups with launching this new technology?

Chief economist Peter Morris of Ascend, an aviation consultancy, said, “If only 10 percent of customers use new technology, all the old systems must remain, meaning you’ve simply added another layer of complexity, not greater simplicity.”

And others like Paul Behan at the International Air Transport Association say that a focus on mobile boarding doesn’t solve other major issues, like passenger frustration over limited luggage space in overhead bins.

Let’s hear from our travelers – would an entirely mobile check-in process make traveling easier, or more complicated than it has to be.


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Source: Huffington Post
Flickr Photo Credit: eGuide Travel