Airlines cool on RFID tags

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking tags are still a "technology in search of an effective application", according to the pan-airline industry IT body SITA.

Paul Coby, CIO at British Airways and chairman of the SITA group, said the issue of standards and the need for a sound business case are still a significant barrier to RFID adoption by airlines.

"That's a technology in search of an effective application. Conceivably the three obvious areas of use are passenger baggage, cargo containers and engineering parts but you need industry-wide standards," he said.

SITA is owned by the airlines and saved the industry £80m last year by helping the migration of around 50,000 legacy telecoms networks connections to IP-based networks.

Peter Buecking, president of SITA, said the tough financial environment and the need for radical cost-cutting by airlines has forced a more co-operative approach to using standardised technology across the industry.

"There is a recognition it is better to co-operate than compete. Competing standards add cost. For example, it is easier to get customers to use self-service kiosks if they all look the same. You can do the differentiation further up at the software level."

One area that the airlines are finally making moves on is the "promise of mobility" and SITA pointed to the recent OnAir alliance with Airbus and Tenzing as evidence that in-flight high-speed wireless voice and data services are not that far away.

Buecking said: "The issue has been for some time that stepping onto an airline has been a retrograde step. In five years time it will be almost seamless from the ground to the air. We are going to enable the use of your device for voice and data."

But Coby was quick to reassure those who might be worried about the possiblity of some inconsiderate loud-mouthed mobile users invading their long-haul flights. "There will be places where you can escape from it on the plane," he said.

The airline industry will also the be the first to be almost completely paper-free with the use of self-service kiosks and remote mobile phone check-in available in the future, according to Coby.

"It's about how technology takes the hassle out of the whole process. We are going to be the first truly 'e' industry. We will take paper out of the industry. You will print your own boarding pass at home or it will be on your phone," he said.