Air France, Orange, SITA, Toulouse-Blagnac Airport and RESA have teamed up for a trial of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology.
Over the next six months, the Touch&Pass app will allow a panel of passengers on Air France flights from Toulouse-Blagnac to Paris-Orly to use their Orange NFC-based smartphones to quickly and conveniently move through the airport—from the airport entrance until they board their plane.
The technology will enable passengers to automatically receive their NFC boarding pass on their smartphones using their usual check-in method. By simply tapping their mobile on dedicated readers in the airport, they will then be able to quickly and easily pass through the different steps of their journey, including priority lanes for security control, lounge access and boarding.
The boarding pass will be read automatically, even if the phone is locked, or the battery is dead.The reader can retrieve the correct boarding pass, even if there are multiple boarding passes present on the phone
Jim Peters, Chief Technology Officer, SITA, said:
“ This trial with Air France and Orange marks the first NFC boarding pass that provides a truly interoperable and scalable solution for the industry.”
Thierry Millet, Vice President of Mobile Payments and Contactless Program at Orange:
“ The new solution relies on two industry standards: an IATA standard from the air transport industry and an NFC standard from GSMA for the mobile industry. This opens the door to a large-scale industrial roll-out.”
Air France and Orange will invite a few hundred Air France Gold and Platinum Flying Blue members to participate in the trial. Orange will provide the NFC infrastructure and SIM cards for the trial.
SITA has developed the NFC specifications that enable this technology to work in an airport environment, a toolkit for mobile integration and the boarding pass delivery infrastructure between Air France and Orange. Air France will provide the Touch&Pass NFC apps for the smartphones, and RESA will provide the check-in, boarding, and fast-lane processing systems for Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, including e-Gates for security checks and self-boarding.
The trial will run until 31 Dec, 2014 on the popular flight from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport to Paris-Orly Airport.
N.B. Image © Aéroport Toulouse-Blagnac / Philippe Garcia