IATA BCBP Standard Compliance

Standard Information

Implementation Guide: IATA Resolution 792 - Bar Coded Boarding Pass (BCBP)
Version: 8 (Effective: June 1, 2020) ✅
Previous Version: Version 7 Implementation Guide
Official Reference: IATA Common Use Standards

Compliance Status

✅ Fully Implemented

Mandatory Items (60 characters)

• Format Code (1 char) - 'M' or 'S'
• Number of Legs (1 char)
• Passenger Name (20 chars)
• Electronic Ticket Indicator (1 char)
• PNR Code (7 chars)
• From City Airport Code (3 chars)
• To City Airport Code (3 chars)
• Operating Carrier Designator (3 chars)
• Flight Number (5 chars)
• Date of Flight - Julian Date (3 chars)
• Compartment Code (1 char)
• Seat Number (4 chars)
• Check-In Sequence Number (5 chars)
• Passenger Status (1 char)
• Field Size of Variable Size Field (2 chars - hex)

Conditional Items

• Beginning of Version Number (1 char)
• Version Number (1 char)
• Unique Conditional Items Size (2 chars - hex)
• Passenger Description / Gender Code (1 char) - Version 8 compliant with "X" and "U" support
• Source of Check-In (1 char)
• Source of Boarding Pass Issuance (1 char)
• Date of Issue of Boarding Pass (4 chars)
• Document Type (1 char)
• Airline Designator of Boarding Pass Issuer (3 chars)
• Baggage Tag License Plate Numbers (13 chars each, up to 3 tags)
• Airline Numeric Code (3 chars)
• Document Serial Number (10 chars)
• Selectee Indicator (1 char)
• International Document Verification (1 char)
• Marketing Carrier (3 chars)
• Frequent Flyer Airline Designator (3 chars)
• Frequent Flyer Number (16 chars)
• ID/AD Indicator (1 char)
• Free Baggage Allowance (3 chars)
• Fast Track (1 char)
• Airline Individual Use (variable)

Repeated Conditional Items (for additional legs)

• All segment fields properly parsed from conditional section

Security Data

• Beginning of Security Data indicator '>' (1 char)
• Type of Security Data (1 char)
• Length of Security Data (2 chars - hex)
• Security Data (variable length)

✅ Supported Barcode Formats

According to IATA Resolution 792, BCBP can be encoded in:

• PDF417 (most common)
• Aztec
• QR Code
• Data Matrix

Note: This library decodes the ASCII data structure regardless of the barcode symbology used.

📋 Version Information

Important: There are two different "versions" related to BCBP:

1. IATA Implementation Guide Version (Document)

   • Current: Version 8 (June 1, 2020) ✅
   • Previous: Version 7 (June 1, 2018)
   • This is the specification document version

2. Boarding Pass Format Version (Data Field)

   • Single character field in the boarding pass data
   • Located at the start of conditional items
   • Values: "5", "6", "7", etc.
   • Indicates conditional items structure version
   • Parsed and stored in BoardingPass.version

🆕 Version 8 Changes (Effective June 1, 2020)

Field 15 - Passenger Description / Gender Code:

• Added "X" = Unspecified gender
• Added "U" = Undisclosed gender
• Existing codes (M, F, 0-9) remain valid

Status: ✅ Fully supported - the library already parses this field correctly

⚠️ Known Limitations

1. Field Validation: The parser does not validate field values against IATA code tables (e.g., airport codes, carrier codes)
2. Date Conversion: Julian dates are not automatically converted to calendar dates
3. Year Rollover: End-of-year date handling (Dec 31 → Jan 1) may need special handling in your application
4. Non-Standard Formats: Some airlines may use proprietary variations that don't strictly follow IATA standard

🔧 Recent Updates

• Version 8 Compliance: Updated to IATA Resolution 792 Version 8 (June 2020) - supports new gender codes X and U
• Segment Parsing: Fixed critical bug where subsequent flight segments incorrectly used mandatory parsing instead of conditional
• Loop Bounds: Fixed off-by-one errors in bag tag and segment loops
• Error Handling: Improved error messages for conditional parsing failures
• Documentation: Added comprehensive field documentation and IATA standard references

📚 References

• IATA Resolution 792
• BCBP Implementation Guide Version 7 (PDF)
• IATA Standards

Testing

The library includes test cases for:

• Single-leg boarding passes (M1)
• Multi-leg boarding passes (M2, M3)
• Various airlines and formats
• Security data variations
• Conditional items edge cases

To run tests:

swift test

Version History

• 2.0.2 - CocoaPods naming update
  • Renamed CocoaPods pod from BoardingPassKit to BoardingPassParser to avoid conflicts
  • Swift Package Manager remains as BoardingPassKit
  • No functional changes, packaging update only
• 2.0.1 - Patch release with improved configuration options
  • Enhanced data processing with configurable trim options
  • Better handling of empty strings and whitespace
  • Improved debugging capabilities
• 2.0.0 - Major release with new configuration options
  • Added trimLeadingZeroes, trimWhitespace, and emptyStringIsNil configuration options
  • Backward compatible with v1.x
  • Enhanced data quality and consistency
• 1.2.0 - IATA Resolution 792 Version 8 compliance (June 2020 standard)
  • Supports new gender codes "X" (Unspecified) and "U" (Undisclosed)
  • Updated documentation and field descriptions
• 1.1.0 - Critical parsing bug fixes, IATA Version 7 compliance verified
• 1.0.0 - Initial IATA BCBP implementation