ORLY, France — An airport in France is experimenting with “virtual” boarding agents in a bid to jazz up its terminals with 21st century avatars who always smile, don’t need breaks and never go on strike. The pilot project at Paris’ Orly airport began last month, and has so far been met with a mix of amusement and surprise by travelers, who frequently try to touch and speak with the strikingly life-like video images that greet them and direct them to their boarding gate.
The images materialize seemingly out of thin air when a boarding agent — a real live human — presses a button to signal the start of boarding.
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