IATA clears mobile phone check-in policy, global implementation by 2010

Flight check-in through mobile phones will soon become official, with aviation industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) giving the technology and its implementation its approval.

IATA announced a new standard for mobile check-in using 2D barcodes, which will use existing formats popular in the Europe and Japan — Aztec, DataMatrix and QR.

According to IATA, airlines will soon be able to send barcodes containing check-in details direct to travellers' phones using MMS or via a link contained in an SMS. Passengers will then present their phones at the time of boarding, for the barcodes to be read from the screen through handheld scanners.

IATA said that it plans to begin developing "standardised processes and guidelines" in order to allow members to implement the technology. The organisation has said that it will replace all magnetic strip boarding cards with barcodes by 2010, allowing the airline industry to save an estimated $500m per year.