Jetstar debuts SMS boarding passes, with help from IBM and Sissit

Stuart Corner
Monday, 23 May 2011 18:04

Your IT - Mobility

Jetstar has introduced a boarding pass via SMS service, along with self-service check-in kiosks at all the 18 Australian and New Zealand domestic airports from which it operates.

The issue of the SMS boarding pass can be automatic. When they book their flight customers can request either SMS or email delivery of the boarding pass and it will be delivered 24 hours before they are due to fly.

Customers holding an SMS boarding pass without check-in baggage can go straight to the boarding gate. Those with baggage can scan their SMS boarding code at a Jetstar self service kiosk in the check-in area, collect their boarding pass, bag-tags then drop their bags at the bag drop and board their flight.

Jetstar says it developed the SMS technology in conjunction with Melbourne-based Sissit Group. The baggage check-in kiosks were developed with Sissit Group and IBM. The system uses universal scanner technology from Sissit Group, and optical character recognition to analyse an image sent to the passenger's mobile phone via SMS messaging.

According to IBM "With the new SMS technology, travellers can quickly confirm their identity, choose their seats, print boarding passes and bag tags, drop off bags at the counter, and proceed straight to their departure gate. The process takes an average of just 12 seconds per passenger now, compared with 27 seconds using the previous check-in kiosks and 65 seconds for a full-service check-in.

Jetstar Group CEO Bruce Buchanan said the technology was different from the mobile solutions of other airlines and a world-first because "it is universally compatible with almost all mobile phones, not just high-end WAP or Internet enabled handsets and doesn't require them to use expensive data roaming services."

"If your mobile phone can receive a text message, no matter the type of handset or plan, then you can use our SMS boarding pass technology," Buchanan said.

According to IBM, "The smart scanning technology allows a passenger's secure information to be read even from mobile handsets that lack the ability to display graphical barcodes…While smartphones can display machine-readable barcodes, research suggested only seven percent of Australians subscribe to mobile data plans. This severely restricted the use of barcode-based mobile check-in solutions. The SMS technology works with the vast majority of mobile phones today despite the differences in nuances between each kind of mobile phone. "

Jetstar said that around 75 percent of its domestic flyers use self-service options such as web check-in at Jetstar.com or self service kiosks, and that the recent customer trials of the SMS boarding pass had increased self service uptake by another 10 percent.