In message
, at
11:25:24 on Sun, 22 Feb 2009, Lüko Willms
remarked:
They check your passport at the boarding gate anyway to ensure that
you are the person named on the boarding pass.

No, why should they?

Quite simply, on a commercial level, to prevent people reselling
tickets.

In more recent times, terrorist concerns mean that the airlines (and not
just the governments) want to make sure that the people travelling are
the same people who checked bags into the hold.

And probably more than you expect, so that various "no fly" lists can be
interrogated (not least those of the airline itself if they have banned
an unruly passenger).
--
Roland Perry