Paperless travel only eight years away

Fingerprint boarding passes and eye-scanning passport control may seem futuristic but a report suggests it is only eight years away.

By 2020, all airports will be paperless and bags will be electronically tagged, according to the From Chaos to Collaboration report released by technology expert Amadeus.

It predicts that technological innovation will take the stress out of travel so that passengers will have nothing to remember and can track the exact location of their bag at any time.

Automated identification systems will use fingerprints to check in, avoiding the lengthy queues and delays in manual check-in.

Travellers will cruise through customs and immigration with just a scan of their retina.

And the experience need not end there.

Passengers will be able to use virtual tour guides - through the same principles as gaming on smart phones and computers - enabling them to visit sites of interest.

Andrew Curry, director and co-author The Futures Company, said: "We wanted to avoid making techno-centric assumptions about the future of travel - and painting a picture of flying cars and intelligent robots in a world that is otherwise unchanged from today.

"We hope that this study will challenge, provoke and stimulate thinking around how we will all be travelling in the future."

by Diane Evans