Positive Boarding

This is the new technology that allows airlines to monitor each passenger's situation in relation to their flight.

It allows the airline to check if passengers have already passed through the airport transit zone or gone to the boarding area. It therefore encourages punctuality by reducing last-minute calls for passengers by airlines.

This new feature came into operation on 16 April 2014, at Heathrow Airport, in London.

Positive Boarding reads the barcodes at the automatic ticket gates, information counters, airport transit zones and check-in counters on the airside of Heathrow Airport.

The information obtained from reading each passenger's boarding pass allows the passenger list of each flight to be controlled in real time. Airlines can access this listing, which allows them to monitor the location of passengers in real time, checking where they are and where they are headed in the airport transit zone (to the boarding area) or, equally important, if they have not yet done so.

A set of predefined rules manage passenger access to the boarding area, check whether they will be able to arrive on time for their departure flight or will have to return to the check-in counter to request assistance from the airline.

The minimum time to get to the boarding area will be 30 minutes for passengers travelling in Economy Class and 20 minutes for passengers travelling in Executive Class.

Find out more here.