Southwest Airlines’ plastic boarding passes soon will become a fixture of the past.
The brightly colored, numbered passes go back to Southwest’s startup in 1972, when it was seeking to find a cheap way to identify passengers while encouraging them to arrive early for a flight.
The passes could only be obtained when the customer checked in at the gate. Customers were allowed to board in groups of 30, with those holding Nos. 1 through 30 going first.
Now, due to the increased security requirements imposed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Southwest says it will scrap the plastic and go to a paper system similar to one used by American Airlines. Security measures already had forced Southwest to supplement the plastic pass with a paper identification pass.
Southwest passengers will be able to obtain the pass at the ticket counters and curbside in addition to the gate. And the carrier is exploring adding self-serve check-in kiosks that other carriers now are using.
Instead of a number, however, passengers will be assigned to a group “A,” “B,” or “C.” Each group will consist of 45 passengers rather than the current 30.
So far, the system has been installed at six airports and is slated to become operational at Chicago Midway Airport later this summer, said Brandy King, a spokeswoman for the airline.
Operations improving: United Airlines said Thursday that the company set more performance records in May.
The airline said it completed 99.56 percent of the nearly 55,000 departures scheduled during May, a record for the airline. And about 76 percent of those flights departed on time or early. In addition, the carrier said its maintenance operations were humming. As a result, the carrier recorded the fewest number of delays or cancellations due to maintenance in the airline’s history.
“More of our flights are arriving on time, departing on time with fewer cancellations than we’ve ever seen,” said Andy Studdert, UAL’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
The continuing operational improvement came as the airline said it will close 23 more city ticket offices in a move designed to cut costs. After the offices close, the airline will have 25 city ticket offices nationwide, including five in the Chicago region.
Last fall, the airline closed 32 ticket offices along the East Coast and in the Midwest when it eliminated 20,000 jobs following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
At that time, the 38 ticket offices in the western U.S. were not targeted. But airline officials have been eyeing those offices because of a decline in sales.
“In the first four months of the year, sales were down 37 percent, while costs have risen 8 percent,” said Chris Brathwaite, a spokesman for United.
He said the carrier is closing its city ticket offices in Portland, Las Vegas, Sacramento and San Diego. And it is planning to close some of its ticket offices in Denver, Hawaii, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Seattle.
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