DUBAI // Emirates Airline has introduced a paperless boarding pass system that gives passengers the option of having the document sent to their smartphones.
Passengers who want an electronic boarding pass need to check in online and ask for a web link to their pass to be sent by e-mail or text message.
A bar-coded pass is then displayed on their mobile phone.
Emirates staff can scan and read the bar code at all check-in counters, airport security checkpoints, Dubai immigration, Emirates lounges and boarding gates.
Mohammed Mattar, the head of airport services at the airline, said the mobile passes met "the demands of a new era of travellers, who seek a more sophisticated and efficient means of managing their business and leisure travel".
Emirates bosses say it will make travel more convenient by allowing customers to keep all of their travel paperwork in one place.
The airline expects to save at least half a tonne of paper in the first year alone.
It plans to extend the mobile passes to 30 other airports.