Passengers will soon be able to use their mobile phones to check-in at airports, thanks to a new scheme.

Virgin Atlantic spoke out about the new system, claiming that although it is too early to predict the popularity of the scheme, sending boarding passes to phones, which could then be read by airport officials straight from the device, could save passengers a lot of time.

Janine Donovan, press officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: "We believe it will be another option for customers to use and that it will give them more choice of check-in options."

"The fact that most people have a mobile phone and it is with them most of the time indicates it would be a powerful way to check them in," he added.

Other departure information, such as gate numbers, could also be sent straight to passengers' phones.

At the end of last year the International Air Transport Association (IATA) claimed that the aviation industry is moving towards mobile phone check-in using two-dimensional barcodes

Furthermore, IATA announced that the end of 2010 has been set as the deadline to implement 100 per cent bar coded boarding passes.

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