AVIATION: Pay as You Fly

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The new jets cruise at 550 m.p.h., but the queues of passengers at airport ticket counters still creep at the old snail's pace. To bring ticketing up to jet-age standards, Denver's Continental Air Lines last month began selling tickets aloft instead of at airports on its Boeing 707 flights between Chicago and Los Angeles. Continental's competitors at first scoffed that the commuterlike service would produce only confusion, but last week they banked steeply onto Continental's course. The innovation proved so successful in eliminating nagging airport waits (it also helped boost Continental's revenue passenger miles 61% last month) that American Airlines now plans to try the system on selected runs, and Trans World Airlines is studying it.

Under Continental's plan, a jet passenger arriving at an airport deposits his bags and picks up a check at the ticket counter, then goes directly to the flight gate. If he has a reservation, he boards the plane immediately; if not, an attendant checks whether space is available, passes the passenger through. Only when the aircraft is aloft does the passenger pay an agent for his ticket and any excess baggage. Passengers still need reservations to be absolutely certain of a seat, but the airlines expect plenty of extra seats to be available once the big-load jets (no passengers v. the DC-7's 75) start flying in quantity. Passengers will be able to arrive at the airport up to ten minutes before flight time, v. the usual 20 or 30 minutes now required by most lines.