This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Boarding pass design is a concentrated form of information design. In a small physical or digital space, it must identify a passenger’s journey, support airport and airline operations, and present the details needed at several stressful moments. The document has changed from a manually completed paper card into a standardised, machine-readable interface that can update on a phone in real time.
Its evolution reflects more than a simple change of medium. Printing, departure-control systems, barcodes, mobile devices and shared airport infrastructure have each altered what a boarding pass contains and how people use it. Yet its central design problem remains constant: essential information must be found quickly, interpreted correctly and verified reliably.
What a Boarding Pass Does
An airline ticket and a boarding pass serve related but different purposes. The ticket records the passenger’s entitlement to travel under a booking, while the boarding pass is issued through the check-in process for a particular flight segment. It connects the traveller with an operational record and provides the information used to reach the correct gate and board the aircraft.
The visible fields commonly include the passenger’s name, origin and destination, carrier and flight number, travel date, boarding time, gate, seat and boarding group. A sequence number, frequent-flyer status or other operational indicators may also appear. Some details are primarily for the passenger; others support airline staff, security processes or automated readers.
From Paper Cards to Automated Documents
As reservation and departure-control systems developed, boarding passes became outputs of a wider information network. Automated ticket and boarding-pass documents could combine a flight coupon, passenger coupon and boarding pass for a specific journey. Standard printers and shared airport equipment encouraged more consistent dimensions, data fields and machine-readable elements.
Magnetic stripes became an important transitional technology. They allowed information to be read electronically but required specialised stock and equipment. Printed text still carried the journey details for passengers, so typography and spatial organisation remained essential even as the document acquired an invisible data layer.
Barcoded Boarding Passes and IATA Standards
The introduction of the barcoded boarding pass, or BCBP, shifted machine-readable data from the magnetic stripe to a visible two-dimensional code. In June 2006, the International Air Transport Association set a target for its members to reach complete BCBP use by 2010. IATA’s 2009 annual report described the intended transition away from magnetic-stripe passes and reported that more than 200 airlines were issuing barcoded passes by the end of 2008.
IATA Resolution 792 defines the structured message carried by the barcode. The standard allows passes produced at a check-in desk, kiosk, website or mobile device to be read across participating airline and airport systems. On printed boarding passes, PDF417 became the default two-dimensional format; later versions also permitted Aztec, Data Matrix and QR formats.
The barcode changed the visual balance of the pass. It occupies substantial space and requires sufficient contrast, clear margins and freedom from decorative interference. It also reduces the need for staff to interpret every printed field manually. Nevertheless, the code is not a substitute for readable passenger information: travellers still need to locate the gate, time, destination and seat without scanning equipment.
Information Hierarchy and Typography
A boarding pass is normally read under time pressure and in visually complex surroundings. The strongest designs treat the journey as a sequence of decisions. Origin and destination establish direction; boarding time and gate support movement through the terminal; group and seat guide the final boarding process. Less urgent details can occupy secondary positions.
Scale, weight, spacing and alignment create this hierarchy. Large airport codes offer rapid recognition, while clear labels prevent a number from being mistaken for a gate, seat or time. Consistent grouping is more useful than decorative novelty. Designers must also accommodate long passenger names, multilingual labels, changed gates and different conventions for dates and time.
Redundancy can be beneficial when it reduces error. A route may appear through airport codes and city names; a date may sit beside a flight number; a gate may be repeated in a prominent area. Colour can reinforce grouping or airline identity, but critical meaning should not depend on colour alone. The pass must remain understandable when printed in monochrome or viewed on a dim screen.
Mobile Boarding Passes and Wallet Design
IATA published a global standard for mobile barcoded boarding passes in 2008. It enabled an IATA-standard two-dimensional code to be displayed on a phone and used during bag drop, security access and boarding without requiring a printed document. A digital-signature provision was added to the mobile standard later that year to strengthen security.
Mobile passes introduced capabilities that paper could not provide. An airline can update a gate, boarding time or flight status, surface the pass near the relevant location and time, and connect it with notifications or other travel services. Apple Wallet, for example, uses a boarding-pass style with defined information fields and machine-readable codes rather than merely reproducing a photograph of a paper pass.
Digital design also introduces new constraints. Screen sizes vary, watches display less information than phones, connectivity may be unreliable and a low battery can make the pass unavailable. The barcode must remain large and bright enough to scan, while essential information must remain visible without excessive navigation. A robust system therefore retains practical recovery options, including an airline app, downloadable document, kiosk or printed pass.
Accessibility and Passenger Confidence
Accessibility strengthens boarding pass design for everyone. Adequate contrast, readable type, meaningful labels and a logical reading order support passengers with low vision or cognitive disabilities and help any traveller working quickly in an unfamiliar airport. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines also advise against using colour as the only way to communicate meaning and emphasise adaptable structure and distinguishable content.
The Future of Boarding Pass Design
Biometric identity systems and shared passenger-processing services may make the boarding pass less visible at some checkpoints. IATA’s current common-use work includes biometric validation and services for security access and boarding. In such systems, a face or digital identity can retrieve information that was previously presented through a printed or mobile code.
Even if the barcode eventually disappears from view, the communication task remains. Passengers still need trustworthy confirmation of destination, schedule, gate, boarding sequence and changes. The history of boarding pass design therefore demonstrates a durable principle of applied graphic design: technology may transform the carrier, but information must remain legible, timely and useful.
Sources
Apple. (n.d.). Getting started with Apple Wallet. https://developer.apple.com/wallet/get-started/
Apple. (2026). Wallet: Human Interface Guidelines. https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/wallet
International Air Transport Association. (2007). IATA annual report 2007. https://www.iata.org/contentassets/c81222d96c9a4e0bb4ff6ced0126f0bb/ar2007.pdf
International Air Transport Association. (2009). IATA annual report 2009. https://www.iata.org/contentassets/c81222d96c9a4e0bb4ff6ced0126f0bb/iataannualreport2009.pdf
International Air Transport Association. (n.d.). Common use standards: Bar coded boarding pass. https://www.iata.org/en/programs/passenger/common-use/
World Wide Web Consortium. (2024). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
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