Changes for better on horizon for fliers in 2008

— -- Luggage may be no lighter and the gate agent may be no less rude in the new year, but 2008 promises improvements on several fronts for air travelers.

After more than a decade of expansive promises and hot sales, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner should actually fly. Airfield improvements at Chicago O'Hare should cut down the average time of delays. And better X-ray machines may help airport screeners move the lines a bit faster.

The USA TODAY travel staff looks ahead to innovations that road warriors will see in 2008:

Technology: In-flight Wi-Fi starts rolling

Surfing the Web at 30,000 feet in the air should become a reality for some domestic travelers in 2008.

Several domestic airlines say they're on schedule to offer in-flight Wi-Fi service next year, allowing passengers to browse the Web and send e-mail. But 2008 figures to be mostly a year of testing, and travelers are unlikely to be able to go online in large numbers until 2009 or after.

JetBlue got the competition rolling earlier this month when it began offering a limited free e-mail and text-messaging service on just one of its aircraft. If the test is successful, JetBlue jblu plans to roll it out to the rest of the fleet.

Working with Colorado-based avionics firm Aircell, American Airlines amr and Virgin America will use similar air-to-ground technology to begin in-flight Wi-Fi service in 2008.

Unlike JetBlue's service, the airlines say their pay-per-day service will provide full-fledged Web-browsing. American's service will be available on 15 of its Boeing 767s that fly transcontinental routes. Virgin America, with 12 planes, says it will offer it fleetwide.

Alaska Airlines alk is working with a small California technology firm, Row 44, to begin testing its Wi-Fi service, which will use satellites to transmit.

Although it hasn't picked a technology partner, Southwest Airlines luv says it plans to begin testing Wi-Fi service on four aircraft in the second quarter of 2008.

If the test is successful, Southwest will begin offering it on more aircraft later in 2008, spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger says.

Several foreign carriers, including Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Qantas Airways, also plan to begin testing their satellite-based service in 2008.

Travelers may also experience the impact of wireless connectivity when more of them are permitted to use a bar code delivered to their cellphone or PDA to check in at the airport.

Earlier this month, the Transportation Security Administration and Continental Airlines began testing the technology at Houston Bush Intercontinental. Other airlines, including Delta dal and United uaua, hope to start offering it in 2008.

Already used by Air Canada and some other foreign carriers, the paperless boarding system lets travelers show the bar code to the TSA screener at the checkpoint and later to the agent at the gate. Their scanners read it as if it were a paper boarding pass.

By Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Airliners: Dreamliner to begin service in fall 2008

Europe's Airbus got most of the plane-making attention this year with the introduction of its behemoth A380, the world's largest passenger jet.

In 2008, it will be Chicago-based Boeing ba in the spotlight with the scheduled first flight and first delivery of its cutting-edge 787 Dreamliner.

The first test flight of the airliner is expected at the end of the first quarter of 2008. Despite production delays, Boeing is not backing off its promise to deliver its first service-ready 787 to Japan's ANA late next fall.

Continental cal and Northwest nwa, the only two U.S. carriers so far to order 787s, will take their first deliveries in 2009.

The 787's advanced technology promises to make it a game changer. Its lighter body and advanced new engines will make it faster and at least 15% more fuel-efficient than the venerable Boeing 767, the wide-body jet it is replacing.

The 787, which carries up to about 300 passengers, should quickly become a common sight at airports across the USA. Boeing already has orders for more than 750 Dreamliners.

As Airbus has learned from its production problems in 2007, all the attention showered on a new plane can turn into a big negative if everything doesn't go exactly right.

And there's plenty of potential for things to go wrong with the 787 program in 2008.

Boeing has put itself on a very tight schedule for testing and delivering the 787, which will be the first jetliner built mostly of high-tech composite material instead of aluminum.

The 787's first flight already has been delayed up to six months by problems fitting together major pieces of the plane that are, in a first for Boeing, being built by subcontractors scattered all over the globe.

That leaves no room for further production difficulties, or problems uncovered in a flight test program that will be running at twice the normal pace. Any further setbacks will be big news.

By Dan Reed

Security: More tech help for screeners

Travel security promises to get more comprehensive and more technologically advanced in 2008.

In a development that will affect passengers at the USA's busiest airports, the Transportation Security Administration will broadly deploy new advanced X-ray equipment in checkpoint lanes.

Advanced X-ray provides clearer and more vivid images of what's inside carry-on bags and allows screeners to see the contents from two angles instead of just one.

Both features give screeners a better picture of a bag's contents and could speed up security lines by reducing the number of times bags have to be put through X-ray machines a second time or hand-checked by TSA staff after X-ray.

The machines are already in use at Reagan Washington National, New York John F. Kennedy and Los Angeles International.

The agency has purchased more than 200 of the $100,000 machines. They'll be installed in 222 checkpoint lanes at the nation's busiest airports next year. The technology is already used to screen checked luggage at a number of European airports.

Passengers at two of the USA's busiest airports will also be getting closer examination — much closer — in 2008. So-called millimeter-wave and backscatter X-ray machines currently being tested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International will go into testing sometime next year at New York Kennedy and Los Angeles International airports.

The technologies create images of people's bodies to look for hidden weapons. The millimeter-wave machine, which resembles a large phone booth, bounces harmless radio waves off a person as he or she stands inside for several seconds with arms raised.

It produces black-and-white computer images that show the outlines of people's undergarments. The machine being tested in Phoenix blurs passengers' faces and instantly deletes the images. Screeners view the images from a remote room where cellphones are prohibited so that photos cannot be taken.

A larger and somewhat slower backscatter machine that uses low-radiation X-ray has also been undergoing testing in Phoenix. Backscatter is primarily used around the world to search people, vehicles and shipping containers. The two technologies will be further tested at JFK and LAX as secondary screening — the extra scrutiny that some passengers get after walking through the magnetometer. Where they are being tested, they will take the place of a pat-down.

The U.S. government also will further tighten identification requirements from travelers entering the country from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Starting Jan. 31, adult Americans returning to the USA by land or via ferry or small boat must carry either a passport or a government-issued photo ID plus proof of citizenship, such as a birth or naturalization certificate. Those requirements already apply to travelers from those areas who arrive by air.

Children 18 and younger will need only proof of citizenship.

Cruise passengers are officially exempt, though cruise lines encourage passport use and already require photo ID and proof of citizenship.

By Marilyn Adams, Barbara De Lollis, Laura Bly and Tom Frank

Airports: Terminals and runways add room

Chicago O'Hare expects to take a major step closer to its goal of reducing congestion when it opens a new runway in November.

When O'Hare's eighth runway is completed, the average flight delay is expected to be cut to 16 minutes from 24 minutes. The 7,500-foot runway, which runs east-west, will be used mostly for bad weather arrivals.

The opening of the new runway won't end the airfield construction at O'Hare. Five of O'Hare's current runways intersect, leading to frequent delays and some near-collisions.

The airport plans to demolish three intersecting runways by 2014. The airport will build three replacement runways that will run parallel to those being kept.

One of the world's most anticipated new terminals, London Heathrow's $8 billion Terminal 5, is scheduled to open on March 27.

Designed by architect Richard Rogers, it will process about 30 million passengers annually and provide much needed room to ease congestion at Europe's busiest gateway.

On completion, British Airways will transfer to Terminal 5 nearly all of its operations, which are now split between Terminals 1 and 4.

The new terminal will have more than 100 shops, ranging from British department store Harrod's to American doughnut icon Krispy Kreme. In addition to the main terminal, the project features two satellite buildings, a new air traffic control tower, a 3,700-space parking garage and a 600-bed hotel.

Having outgrown its cramped Terminal 6 at New York John F. Kennedy, discount carrier JetBlue plans to move to its new home at Terminal 5 in September.

Designed by San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler, the $742 terminal sits immediately behind the empty landmark TWA terminal designed by the late Eero Saarinen.

The Y-shaped concourses after the security checkpoints will have 26 gates, five more than the carrier's current operations at Terminal 6. The airline will also gain 10 security lanes and two baggage carousels.

By Roger Yu

Open Skies: Treaty expands options

For the first time, U.S. and European airlines next year will be able to cross the Atlantic without government-imposed limits on the places they may land.

For travelers, it will mean new flights, new routes and possibly new airlines after the old rules get dismantled in March. The new competition could eventually deliver lower fares.

The big changes come from the landmark Open Skies Treaty that U.S. and European Union officials signed earlier this year to spark competition.

The biggest impact will be seen at London Heathrow airport, where currently only four airlines — British Airways bab, Virgin Atlantic, United and American — can fly non-stop to and from the USA.

By April, Continental will serve it from Newark and Houston; Northwest will fly there from Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Seattle; US Airways lcc will fly there from Philadelphia; and Delta will fly there from Atlanta. Air France akh will also launch service between London Heathrow and Los Angeles.

To take advantage of the new authority to fly, British Airways is developing a subsidiary airline, which, for now, is called "Project Lauren."

Expected to launch in 2008, the airline will initially fly two Boeing 757s between airports in the Northeast and major European capitals other than London. Plans call for growth.

The International Air Transport Association expects traffic between the USA and Europe to grow by 4.3% annually through 2011, outpacing the growth rates forecast for travel within the USA.

By Barbara De Lollis