Blackberry and Android mobile users will now be able to join their iPhone-loving passengers on British Airways using their handsets as boarding cards.
The move comes as BA extends the mobile boarding card idea to other popular devices following an upgrade of the airline’s smartphone app in July 2010.
The airline has also issued some data about usage of the mobile boarding cards: over 30,000 passengers have opted to have go since the functionality was introduced.
Given that the airline flies around 33,000,000 passengers a year (based on 2009 published figures), this represents less than 0.10% of the total, or almost 0.30% of the total based on a pro rata for the three months since it launched.
Rolling out in phases, mobile boarding cards can be used on any domestic BA flight with around half of BA’s international short haul routes added during the latter part of this year before attention turns to long haul destinations.
Currently only members of British Airways Executive Club can receive a mobile boarding pass.
Hi Kevin
Thank you so much for your post. I just wanted to clarify a few points you’ve raised:
The mobile boarding pass functionality has only been live on the iPhone app since July this year and as of today it’s available from all UK domestic destinations, any UK airport to all shorthaul European destinations and from 27 European destinations to the UK. We’re working on rolling this out to more routes on our network and will update ba.com and Twitter when routes have been added.
So far we’re very happy that over 30,000 iPhone users have opted to use our mobile boarding pass and we hope that from today, BlackBerry owners will find it beneficial too. Android-operated mobile smartphones will be able to use mobile boarding passes from next month.
The calculation you’ve used is based on Mobile Boarding Pass being available on all our route network and available to everyone that flies with us. As you mention, it’s only available to British Airways Executive Club members who have to be 18 years or over to join.
Regards
Nuria Garrido
British Airways, Digital Marketing Innovations Team
@nuria – hey, thanks for the clarification.
Glad you’re happy with the take-up so far. All good.
What would be interesting to know is what your projections are the usage over, say, the next 12-18 months as more routes are added and smartphone adoption increases?
Unfortunately, I can’t share that information with you.