Delta makes the friendly skies even friendlier... to cell phones

CNET reports today that if you’re using Delta to fly out of LaGuardia Airport, you can now use your cell phone to get on board. Today, Delta announced a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to test a paperless check-in, where passengers can download a boarding pass onto their devices with access to mobile internet and scan it at the airport’s security checkpoint and before boarding the plane. (Apparently, Continental’s in on this idea too.)

At the moment the service is only for domestic travelers flying out of LaGuardia. As with pretty much anything you do in or around the airport, you’ll have to present ID, of course. Is this a way for Delta to show environmental concern, advances in technology, cut corners due to high gas prices, paper costs and so-so profits, or all of the above?

Sounds like mobile phones are slowly becoming a more and more acceptable part of flying, even if most people think they shouldn’t be allowed on a plane. (Sounds like a nightmare: ever been on a bus when someone was yapping on their cell? Now imagine that trip times about 10 hours.)