Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Flights are letting high-tech travelers access boarding passes from their mobile device to expedite the airport check-in process.

The airlines introduced the new electronic boarding passes in seven cities. Each electronic boarding pass displays an encrypted bar code along with the passenger and flight information that is verified by Transportation Security Administration agents at the security checkpoint.

?Our goal is to make traveling and the check-in process for business travelers easy and convenient,? said Jeff Anderson, manager of self service and airport strategy at Alaska Airlines, Seattle.

?Our customers wanted a way to check-in when they are on the road and the electronic boarding pass makes it easy for any high-tech traveler to get from curb to the gate quickly and without a computer or printed boarding pass,? he said.

Up in the air
The electronic boarding passes will be available on Feb. 24 to passengers flying from San Jose, CA, and Fairbanks, AK.

Additionally, by late March electronic boarding passes will be available for customers traveling from five California cities: Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario, Palm Springs and Sacramento.

?Our immediate goal is to support ?day of flight? functions for the road-warrior-type of customer and simplify the travel experience for our customers,? said Mark Guerette, director of ecommerce for Alaska Airlines.

?In the months to come, Alaska Airlines customers will be seeing more in the way of mobile development designed specifically to meet a person's day-of-travel needs, including making changes to existing reservations, accessing airport information and potentially purchasing tickets," he said.

?There is a significant opportunity to reach customers with the use of helpful native mobile applications. With so many customers traveling without access to a printer, the mobile channel gives customers the ability to stay connected and take advantage of marketing offers and other announcements.?

Mobile travelers
According to Alaska Airlines, this is a new incentive to reach out to their customers and meet their needs.

Passengers can opt-in to receive offers through Alaska Airlines? mobile club and receive updates on flight changes.

A new mobile Web site built to fit small screens, provides travelers with their flight status information, flight schedules, Web check-in and flight alerts.

Customers can also use the ?My Trips? feature on the mobile site to view their itineraries, change seats, check their upgrade status and add an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan number to a reservation.

Consumers can use the site to check flight status and schedules.

Here are screengrabs of each:

?Long term, we believe this technology will become more popular and we expect we may not need as many kiosks in the airport once the adoption rate reaches a critical mass,? Mr. Anderson said.

?In addition to cost savings for the airline, customers can save time and help the environment a little by using a paperless boarding pass,? he said.