A startup airline has made clear it will not ever offer paper boarding passes, with its chief executive predicting that such physical boarding passes will completely disappear by 2030.
CEO Predicts The End Of Paper Boarding Passes By 2030
We’ve seen the possibility of digital boarding passes for over 20 years now, but paper boarding passes are still available in almost all cases…a vestige of the past much like a passport or the dot-matrix printers airlines still use to print flight manifests with technology older than you are.
Tony Douglas, the CEO of Saudi Arabian airline startup Riyadh Air, is not going to follow the practices of predecessors as his carrier prepares to take off in 2025. He recently shared that there will be no paper boarding pass options on Riyadh Air.
In fact, Douglas believes that even phone-based boarding passes will disappear as more airlines embrace biometric scanning or fingerprinting.
To that end, Riyadh Air is creating an innovative new boarding system that will remind you of Amazon, Uber, and your banking app, not the familiar systems in use today by carriers around the world. “What we’ve designed is something that’s got more in common with Uber and Amazon,” said Douglas.
“We’re not starting with a legacy system and therefore we don’t need to switch. Existing airlines are trying to bridge a gap and it’s going to take three to five years for most of them.”
He contrasted this his legacy competitors:
“If you return an item, you get your money back. Yet if you book a trip involving a number of partner airlines and try to get a refund on one of the flights it takes 10,000 years because it was never designed with that in mind.”
That’s an exaggeration, but his point is taken: the current refund system for many carriers is cumbersome, especially when compared to Amazon.
The new Riyadh Air system is under development from San Francisco-based technology firm Flyr will include “a shopping basket function allowing multiple bookings from relatives or colleagues, even when traveling from different cities – and the ability to split or combine payments.”
Riyadh Air is not alone. In act, Irish budget carrier Ryanair is planning to beat Riyadh Air by eliminating all paper boarding passes by May 2025.
But I’m skeptical. Here in the USA, Alaska Airlines no longer issues paper boarding passes from airport kiosks, but does offer them for those willing to see an agent (who may not have a smartphone). I understand that airlines want to eliminate (or in the case of Riyadh Air never offer) paper boarding passes, but there is still a significant minority of the population, particularly older passengers, who may not have access to the latest smartphones. You don’t want to essentially say your airline does not welcome your business…
Judging by how long REAL ID has been delayed in the USA, I expect we will see paper boarding passes until I am an old man. But I understand the unique considerations of Riyadh Air or any other start-up: why introduce paper boarding passes in the first place if you can avoid it.
> Read More: Alaska Airlines No Longer Issues Paper Boarding Passes From Airport Kiosks…It’s Not So Bad
Trying going to a concert or sporting event without a Smart phone. Recently walked up to a venue to buy tix to save the Ticketmaster fees. They needed my phone number to text them to me, printing them wasn’t an option.
Maybe Ticketmaster makes exemptions for extreme cases but overall the world has been going this way for years. Not surprised airlines are following the trend.
My experience in Ticketmaster venues printing is not an option for the employee at the booth but the supervisor can print. They print from a normal office printer not a dedicated ticket stub printer. Expect to wait a while.
I know a retired university professor who went to the ticket office when his university announced the end of paper tickets for football games. He showed them his not-at-all-smart phone. They printed tickets. I suspect it may be necessary to do that as an ADA requirement.
As a Gulf region based airline there are going to be some destinations where the exit immigration process will be challenging without a paper boarding pass. I will bet good money that they will still have paper boarding passes for special situations.
IAD_flyer … +1 . Plus , I am deaf so cannot hear paging , and I don’t own a mobile phone , so I’ll bring along my e-ticket and confirmation number .
Not all small children or pets (fake service dogs) have their own smartphone.
No boarding pass or ticket means no entry to the terminal in Chennai, India. Yes, an online version is acceptable but there is free wifi only to those with an Indian phone number.
Incoming rant:
Mobile boarding passes for domestic US flights or intra-Schengen may work well, but for intl travel it’s useless. The only benefit is a second copy of your bp and some sort of proof that you OLCI’d.
In the US, if I don’t get bp’s from a human I get paged to the gate podium for passport verification when on an intl itinerary. United is a sick joke when it comes to check in, the app didn’t issue a mobile bp so I went to the Polaris/1K check in. Everyone was made to use a kiosk, which then started blinking to signal an agent to come over to swipe her badge. With AA and DL I can walk up to the counter and present my passport to an agent and be done in less than a minute.
I recently took KLM’s 5th freedom EZE-SCL, While I was able to issue a mobile bp, I got a text on my way to EZE to stop by the gate for verification. I went to the check in counter and a human needed to see my return/onward ticket from SCL.
Earlier this year I took EK from DXB to IAH. EK eliminated paper bps unless flying to the US. I was asked to show my green card 5 times at DXB.
On FlyerTalk, I read a post where the poster was flying Turkish ex-DEN and heard announcements from the gate agent that all pax with mobile bp must come to the gate to collect a paper one. The irony was that TK prints on the back of the bp an advert advocating to use mobile for “environmental” reasons.
Riyadh Air better develop a darn good automated system to verify docs if they’re going the paperless route.
I’ve seen the paging also being done in Argentina for domestic flights, and had been thinking that it must be an AR policy designed to ensure they revise hand luggage (particularly since even the expensive fares only allow you to check in 15kgs), but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a national law.
Yes, at some point I have to have a human swipe the passport at check in or they’ll want to do it at the gate for international travel. Since I’m checking bags always, it gets done when dropping off bag. I then have a usable boarding pass on the app, but I still have them print a paper one. Works this way on AA, DL, and UA in 2024 for me. I’ve never been booked on F or J and had them request I use a kiosk.
Good luck to Mr Douglas if he’s planning to fly to the People’s Republic of China. I wasn’t allowed to enter the connections security queue at CAN with my online boarding pass from KQ, had to argue with half a dozen people before someone reasonably senior finally accepted to print it, and even after they stamped it I was challenged once again by the people actually undertaking the screening who also had to obtain approval from their own management approval before finally sending me on my way.
Last month PVG, XMN and CAN all wanted to stamp my paper boarding passes at some point or another during my going through those airports.
Happened to me at XMN too, not sure about PVG. CAN was on a different level though as they didn’t even want to stamp the printout!
I also needed a stamp at HAN where the kind check in supervisor wanted to ensure I can access the skypriority security queue.
Smartphones crash/stall/die. Will the traveler then have to buy a new emergency smartphone to be able to travel on a ticketed flight?
I have already seen over a dozen people fined for electronic ticket problems on public transit systems because their phones crashed or died at the wrong time. This will be a replicated situation at airports too once they get rid of paper boarding passes while the airlines are still counting on boarding passes.
…and virtually everything generated on an app only works if you have access to the internet. If there’s no WiFi and your roaming doesn’t work (as mine didn’t when I needed to receive a text message for 2FA in Mozambique and found out that my provider doesn’t partner with any local networks), you can look forward to a long stay in the gate area.
I screenshot just about everything produced in airline apps because of my concerns about internet connectivity later on, pushed updates, airline server outages and so on.
I’m able to save bps to Google Wallet on all (or at least 2 of) the Legacy3. I don’t need internet access to use it. However, it won’t update for seat changes like upgrades, I think.
Funny thing about paper boarding passes is that they don’t run out of batteries or crash.
And I hate it when the agent uses a highlighter to circle the gate and boarding time on my phone screen.
Except if the small stub comes off the ticket. Had this happen in Amman once and couldn’t find it. Had to return to a checkin counter post security to have a new one printed since they couldn’t do it at the gate.
Agree with the many posters above…
Stupidest idea ever!
I don’t know, New Coke, and filling blimps with hydrogen may still be at the top of that.list.
And what happens if I need a paper boarding pass to submit for my insurance claim?
Relatedly, within the USA, delta is already on board. For the last couple of months, if you check in online on delta.com but not on the app, delta will not issue a mobile boarding pass. I suspect they want your precious data mostly. Haven’t seen any other US carriers do this yet. So when I fly DL, it will be paper boarding pass only for me.
Do the airlines really think that nothing can go wrong (as noted above with apps, wifi, phones dying or airline glitches) ??? Yeah, you could print out your booking itinerary, ticket number on for start of travel etc, in advance but that does no good if there is an itinerary change, delay, cancellation in transit or the need for preticketing or a refund (no proof that you actually flew what you booked). This, in an environment where airline staff is not trained to reissue a ticket or deal with serious changes and thinking out of the box. So line up behind 100 others at a short-staffed ticket counter or wait on a phone call for hours….wow, with all of that, you might just get where you’re going ???
Older or confused people or families, just multiply the torture of this. For the love of all that’s holy, ALL of us are not robots or understand all the steps and options (or not) that we will have to go through.
correction….” the need for re-ticketing”
Have these guys learned nothing from the recent Crowdstrike outage about an over reliance on digitalization and technology?
These greedy companies feel ok with dumping the costs of their own massive failures onto their customers. And the corporate-apologist government actors basically let them get away with it with maybe a meaningless slap on the wrist for public show.
Call me crazy! I guess I am old now because I want paper boarding pass. I made it an effort to get a paper boarding pass on all my Alaska Airlines flights because I want to make a point to the airline that some of us prefer a real boarding pass.
Riyadh Air will have many issues with not having a paper boarding pass as plenty of the countries in that regional require lots of stamps.
I don’t think the world is ready for digital boarding pass anytime soon!
The solution is simple: make people who generate costs pay for it, and charge for this service (waiving it for medical reasons).
You want to trade with a broker instead of online? You can , you just pay a fee.
You want to deposit cash with a teller instead of an ATM? You can, and there’s a teller fee.
You want a printed boarding pass? You can, and there’s a assisted check in fee.
Simple.
I guess some of us are a bit anal. Yet, we are the same ones who have experienced bleeding edge technology that crashed & burned to a crisp (looked at you CrowdStrike).
Yep, I’ll upload a boarding pass to the phone in the Wallet feature which is very convenient. However, prefer to print a hard copy as a backup based on so many chargers at airports Out-of-Action as usual (pointing at you DCA).
Also, don’t like the idea that I have to add another app to my phone for each broadway or concert vendor for a QR code. One vendor made a big fuss about uploading their “exclusive app” and inferred this was the only way for access to the theater. When we arrived, they accepted my printed tickets without batting an eye.
Moral of the story: While traveling, its best to have a Plan “B”.
I’m chuckling in how short a memory some people have.
Does anyone remember the Crowdstrike debacle?
Sure, it’s NICE to have paper passes but if there’s some type of electronic blip, millions of people could be left stranded with little way to show officials where they are going. Sometimes I use mobile passes if I don’t want to have a hotel print them out, but otherwise, I prefer to print them out at home or a friends because they’re darn handy. I feel a LOT safer having physical proof/
That’s simply not happening. The airlines are still using dot matrix printers ffs.
This plan won’t work because of countries like India but one cool innovation that Fly91 (India regional carrier) does is just give the boarding pass after purchase. They don’t have this concept of checking in because why would you.