Already omnipresent in the world of business travel, the mobile phone is set to play a crucial role in the development of the sector in the short term. The integration of NFC technology should make it possible to centralise all the useful information relating to travel and the traveller within the smartphone, which should see its device transformed into a sesame opening the various airport gates with a simple approach. SITA, Orange Business Services and their partners have just given a more concrete expression to this objective: the specialist in technological solutions for the air transport sector has just published "the first proven concept for the use of an NFC chip in smartphones". The press release published by SITA on 23 January, accompanied by a demonstration video, is intended to highlight the many advantages offered by the use of contactless technology (NFC): advantages which should lead to a dramatic increase in the use of phones for boarding: from less than 3% to 50 or even 80% by 2018 according to SITA.
All-purpose telephone
Travellers should therefore be able to use their smartphone as a virtual boarding pass, giving them access to check-in, security checks and the airlines' business lounges. Developed jointly by the laboratories of SITA and Orange Business Services, the experimental system has already proved satisfactory, both in terms of ease of use and security. SITA points out the various disadvantages of the two-dimensional QR codes currently available, citing system flaws and problems of use. With NFC technology, all the necessary information can be accessed without a network connection, without a special application, and above all without the mobile phone being switched on. All that remains now is to define common standards for all airports and airlines: standards that SITA intends to help put in place, by supporting the criteria of the GSM Association and 45 mobile phone operators.
