iPhones Help Airlines Get a Little Greener

Airline and government officials are continuing the push to do away with paper boarding passes and converting them instead to electronic means.

Pretty soon when you get your boarding pass from an airline, you’ll be able to have it on your cell phone or PDA. In fact, this is already happening in some airports. The boarding pass will be displayed in the form of an electronic bar code that will be scanned at checkpoints by a TSA screener wielding a $1,000 scanning device.

The TSA plans on expanding the passes to be nationwide within the next year and have been testing out the new paperless passes to make sure that they are secure.

Some airports are already using paperless boarding passes. Delta uses them at LaGuardia in New York, and is planning to expand them to Salt Lake City, Orlando and Atlanta. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Alaska Airlines is using paperless passes with plans for expansion, Continental Airlines has been using them at six airports and United plans to begin using them next year.

While electronic boarding passes may help the environment by reducing paper use and allow the people who use them to get through the airport faster, some people worry that the electronic system will be vulnerable to hackers.

(link)