Air France is currently trialling new boarding passes on mobile phones which don’t leave a paper trail. The trial is taking place on flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam. Passengers only need personal identification as a message containing a secure barcode is sent your mobile phone which is then scanned at the boarding gate. The message contains all the normal information shown on a boarding pass but just in an electronic form. According to Patrick Roux, vice-president of marketing for Air France: “This is the first time customers will be able to travel to and from two countries with an electronic boarding pass”. Although it sounds like a good idea, what happens if the screen of your phone is really scratched and can’t be scanned?

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