Like most companies getting involved in the mobile platform, British Airways recognise the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android platforms. Nokia is persona non grata at this time.

The British Airways app lets you access your current and upcoming flight details, check-in and discover flight information, timetables and so on. Plus if you’re an Executive Club member (Oh yes) then you’ll be able to check out your account details.

If you’ve got an iPhone though, it’s even better news though — the iPhone app has been equipped with the mobile boarding pass functionality. Instead of printing out the flimsy bit of paper at check-in, you simply check-in via the app and then, ‘your boarding pass will be downloaded to your iPhone’.

Now I don’t know precisely how that works yet as I’ve not experienced it. It would be highly convenient if the boarding pass was generated as a PNG or JPG and stored locally within the application’s database once you’ve checked-in, so that you don’t have to rely on patch data signal in the airport to take five minutes to call up the boarding pass. I’m sure that’s how they’ve deployed it.

Here’s what it looks like:

A trillion times better than those flimsy boarding passes you have to print out when you check-in at the airport.

Right now you can only use the mobile boarding pass between London Heathrow and Edinburgh (and vice versa). I imagine this is to give staff (and the system) the opportunity to work out the kinks before deploying to wider locations.

It makes SO much sense though. SO much sense. You always have your phone with you. And if you’re a frequent flyer from London to Edinburgh, this will make your life just a tiny bit nicer.

There is nothing worse than having to fumble for your boarding pass as you reach the gate. Or when the woman in WH Smiths demands to see it.

Love it. I hope to see this deployed across BA’s entire operation soon! Yes, paper will need to be used for some time to come but for those who want to erase the tiny hassles from their lives, the mobile boarding pass will really, really help.

And now, here are a few more pictures:

BlackBerry:

iPhone:

Android:

The launch follows a trial which finished earlier this year. During 2008, Qantas will start rolling out the service on some domestic B767-300 and A330-200 aircraft. Aussie flyers wanting to use the service will need either a roaming-equipped GSM mobile for texting or a GPRS BlackBerry for email – voice calls aren’t on the cards.

No word again on the pricing or where the service will be used. It’s interesting that Qantas is only offering the service on inter-Australia flights – you’d think that longer haul trips would be more likely to induce the sort of boredom texting relieves. I wonder if it’s a regulatory issue?

According to AeroMobile, it’s the first time that voice calls have been allowed on commercial airline flights, after the European Aviation Safety Agency and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority gave the system the thumbs-up.

It looks like AeroMobile and Emirates have really done their research here. There’s a second aircraft coming online soon, so the service isn’t just a one-off, BlackBerry email and other GPRS data applications will be available later on this year and there’s even a politeness policy enforced making sure that passengers keep their mobiles on silent. If Emirates get the pricing right, it could be the testbed that proves demand for in-flight mobility.