RFID ePass: Entire boarding ritual at airport will now be a breeze

Filed in archive Implementation on December 2, 2008

I simply get irritated when each time I have to go through the boarding pass ritual but this is something which Air New Zealand plans to take care of with its RFID Boarding Passes. Now if you are lucky to be an Air New Zealand passenger you will be able to walk through boarding and check counters at every domestic airport served by it. After an investment of over NZ$30 million, Air New Zealand is expected to become one of the first airlines in the world offering RFID backed self scanned boarding and check-in services.

So the next time you visit the airport you won't have to waste your time in bag check queues and your boarding process would get simpler minus any form of paper documents. If you are in New Zealand very soon you will have access to permanent reusable boarding passes which would make entering lounges and boarding flights a child's play.

This is what Julia Raue, Chief Information Officer; Air New Zealand had to say about RFID ePass:

The new RFID ePass is one of a range of initiatives launched as part of a multimillion-dollar investment to transform the check-in and boarding experience. We wanted to utilize new technology to meet the needs of customers, and offer different ways of checking in and obtaining a boarding pass.

If you talk about its size then it's very much similar to small bar code sticker and it can be conveniently attached to your cell phones so that you can easily enter and exit lounges and gates. If you worry about losing your security then take a chill pill as ePass only includes tag identifier and number sequence and does not include any kind of personal information. Chances of fraud are negligible as customer would have to be present self during the entire process.This entire process looks simply cool and I feel that other airlines would too make an effort to ape it after the meltdown era says goodbye!!