E-Boarding Cards Set for Take Off

By SCHWARZ, Reuben

AN Auckland start-up hopes to take the aviation world by storm with an electronic boarding card that alerts passengers if their flight has been delayed or if they are about to miss their plane.

Paxflow has just completed a pilot of its system at Geneva Airport, using passengers of boutique airline FlyBaba, and is talking to airports and carriers around the world.

The company’s device displays flight details, gate information and boarding times — all of which can be remotely updated — on an LCD display.

It can alert passengers who are checked in but don’t board the flight, a major source of delays and lost revenue for airlines, says Paxflow president Jon Lowther.

If a passenger doesn’t respond, the airline can use Paxflow’s wireless technology and network of transceivers to locate the device and the passenger without using the airport’s public address system.

It is pitching its system as a service that airports would offer to airlines. The system would involve a “significant investment” for an airport, Mr Lowther says.

“The biggest challenge carriers face is their passengers,” he says. “PA systems are a form of noise pollution. They fill the environment of an airport with tension.”

The cards could display how far passengers needed to walk to their gate, and whether they were going in the right direction.

Mr Lowther says the Geneva trial tested two possible uses of the company’s “personalised passenger assist” device. In the first, passengers were given the device when they checked in and handed it back when they boarded the aircraft.

In the second, frequent flyers were given the devices to take home so they could create their own boarding passes from their home PC.

Passengers were also messaged with offers of duty free discounts. “We could see people going to the stores within five to 10 seconds of getting the prompts.”

Paxflow’s prototype is the size of an iPod nano, but Mr Lowther says the final version will be credit card-sized.

It could be loaded with biometric or passport information to check passengers’ identities when they boarded, he says. The boarding cards are low-power “active radio-frequency” devices that can receive signals broadcast over the 2.4GHz band.

Mr Lowther says airports are a difficult environment for wireless technology because of the heavy radio traffic.

Paxflow has seven fulltime employees in its “engine room” development centre in Auckland and a small commercial presence in Singapore. Its shareholders include the founders as well as private investors.

It is seeking venture capital investment in New Zealand, Singapore, the US, Britain and Hong Kong.

The company has close ties to IT giant Hewlett-Packard, being part of its “Cooltown” technology showcase. HP also helped Paxflow to pitch its product in Geneva.

Mr Lowther came up with the idea for Paxflow at Christchurch Airport. “I travel quite a lot and am often quite frustrated with the process.” He sold his first Kiwi technology company, Latitude, in 1999.

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