Continental Airlines has claimed another first with its mobile boarding pass, this time in widening its scope to the UK.
Continental today (February 25) said the extension of its paperless boarding system to London Heathrow Airport made it the first US carrier to offer the facility in the UK.
This is another boost to Continental’s Heathrow offering, along with the news that the carrier will add fully-flat beds to its London-New York route from June.
Mobile boarding passes - consisting of a barcode sent to, and scanned from, mobile devices - are becoming increasingly familiar to European passengers. Lufthansa, Bmi and Air France are just some of the larger European carriers with similar systems.
But in December Continental announced itself the first US airline to offer mobile boarding passes both in Europe and outside the US, with the addition of Frankfurt Airport.
“We are pleased to add Heathrow to the growing list of airports we serve with mobile boarding passes,” said Martin Hand, Continental’s VP of reservations and eCommerce.
“Customers have told us this is the type of product improvement they want, and we will continue to expand the self-service technology to more of our domestic and international destinations.”
Continental passengers will also be able to access “enhanced flight information” through their mobile phones, smartphones or PDAs, such as flight status and times.
According to Continental it was the airline to offer mobile boarding passes in the US back in December 2007, as part of a pilot programme with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).