Alaska Airlines says it’s becoming the first US-based airline to roll out support for electronic bag tags, small programmable devices with e-paper displays that are designed to replace the paper tags currently in use. It plans to launch the new program in phases, and it’ll initially be focused on San Jose airport in California. The airline will initially give out 2,500 of the tags for free to its frequent flyers from the airport in late 2022, TechCrunch reports, and they’ll be available to purchase by Mileage Plan members next year.
BagTag is the manufacturer behind the electronic tags, which are already used by other airlines outside of the US including Air Dolomiti, Austrian, China Southern, Lufthansa, and Swiss.
I suppose it can also cut down some time during the check-in process. One of our local retailers was testing e-paper on their shelves a few years back, but thinking now, I’m sure they are no longer there as they are back to paper price labelling (on the shelves as the items are all barcode scanned). So I’m sure dependability, not being stolen, etc are all also important factors.
#technology #airlines #epaper