Etihad Airways introduces mobile boarding passes

By Chris C., June 26 2014

Etihad Airways is introducing mobile boarding passes on select routes in an expansion of its existing mobile check-in facility.

Making check-in easier – particularly for passengers on the go or who are running late – it also reduces paper wastage and allows the storage of multiple boarding passes on the one mobile device.

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad’s Chief Commercial Officer said: “Our aim is to simplify and streamline the departure and boarding experience.

“The elimination of paper boarding passes will be more convenient for our guests and reduce our environmental footprint, which is good for the guest, the business and for the environment.”

The new mobile boarding passes contain the same information as traditionally printed on paper – including the flight number and the departure time – along with a barcode for scanning at the boarding gate.

Guests can download these directly to their smart phone, can import them into Passbook on Apple iPhones and iPads, or can send them to an email address for later retrieval.

While not available in every city, the number of Etihad destinations equipped with mobile boarding pass readers will steadily increase as the airline installs the new technology across its global network.

At the onset, it's available for guests travelling from Abu Dhabi, London Heathrow, Manchester, Doha, Colombo, Dammam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Minsk, Munich and Tokyo Narita.

For Australian travellers, mobile boarding passes can be issued in Abu Dhabi for flights bound for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but paper boarding passes are still needed when leaving home soil.

Paper boarding passes are also required when travelling from Abu Dhabi to the United States.

The move follows Etihad partner Virgin Australia’s transition to paperless boarding, with mobile phones all that’s needed to travel on all Virgin Australia domestic flights.

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