Continental adds Logan Airport for paperless boarding passes

Continental Airlines passengers departing on domestic flights from Logan International Airport can now go paperless when it comes to boarding passes.

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Under a pilot program by the airline and the Transportation Security Administration, Continental customers making flight reservations can receive their boarding passes electronically on cell phones or PDAs that have e-mail capabilities.

The paperless boarding passes will display an encrypted, two-dimensional bar code on the devices, along with passenger and flight information. TSA security officers at checkpoints will request passenger IDs and use handheld scanners to validate the boarding passes’ authenticity before passengers can enter the secure areas of the airport.

TSA came up with the concept of scanning a paperless boarding pass, and Continental developed the encryption and implementation plan.

“Intelligence continues to indicate that terrorists might attempt to use fake boarding passes to get around the security system,” said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the TSA’s Northeast region. “But the paperless boarding passes also give us the opportunity to test some new technology in partnership with the airlines and potentially create a system that would reduce the amount of paper used.”

The paperless boarding passes are restricted to single-traveler itineraries for domestic Continental flights leaving Logan; George Bush International Airport in Houston, which launched the program in December; Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., which started using them last week; and Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport beginning next week. Paper boarding passes must still be used for connecting flights leaving other airports.

Between 500 and 600 passengers a day are using the paperless boarding passes in Houston, Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark said. “They like the convenience of having all their data on their PDA,” she said.

Continental handled more than 1.2 million customers last year at Logan, 4.4 percent of the airport’s passengers.

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