Paper Airline Tickets...on their way out??

[Lindsay Wilson]

Airline tickets fly into history books




By Julie Clothier for CNN
Tuesday, June 6, 2006 Posted: 1529 GMT (2329 HKT)

The IATA wants all paper tickets phased out by the end of 2007.

(CNN) -- Old-fashioned airline tickets will be relegated to the history books next year if an industry lobby group gets its way.

Currently, almost 48 percent of tickets worldwide are electronic but the International Air Transport Association (IATA) wants all paper tickets phased out in 2007. The association represents 265 airlines accounting for 94 percent of international air traffic.

Speaking at the World Air Transport Summit in Paris, IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in his state of the industry address that one of the biggest challenges for airlines was the 100 percent adoption of e-ticketing.

"Today, nearly one out of every two tickets issued is an e-ticket. But to achieve our 70 percent target for 2006 we need more speed," Bisignani told industry representatives. Bisignani said IATA would invest $10 million to ensure all member carriers adopt e-ticketing, which it believes could save the industry more than $3 billion.

An electronic ticket (ET) holds the information previously held on a paper ticket. It requires a new database, integrated with the airline's passenger service systems, which interfaces with all partners for real time processing of passengers.

During the past 12 months, IATA airlines issued 315 million paper ticket, which cost $10 compared to process compared to e-tickets, which cost $1, according to the IATA. Of all tickets issued in the Americas, 68.6 percent are e-tickets, compared with just 6.7 percent of those in the Middle East.

E-ticketing is one of the key components of the association's "Simplifying the Business" initiative, which aims to make air transport more convenient for passengers and more cost efficient for carriers The initiative also includes adopting bar coded boarding passes, luggage tracking technology and self-service check-in machines.

Advocates of e-tickets say that as well as cutting costs, they also make it easier for customers to make last-minute changes to their itinerary, makes check-in easier and avoids the issue of lost tickets. For travel agents, benefits including eliminating ticket printers, maintenance and ticket distribution.

Bisignani said e-freight, where the movement of cargo is all done electronically, is a bigger challenge than e-ticketing. He said airlines were "sinking in a sea of paperwork," but eliminating it was not entirely in carriers' control and that government inaction was holding back progress in trade efficiency. "Not a single government has all the legislation in place to support e-freight. In today's Internet world, this is an embarrassment. Governments must not block a responsible industry driving efficiency."

Bisignani said of all goods traded internationally, 35 percent were transported on IATA-member aircraft.

[Lindsay Wilson]

From the poll attached to the story...

Which do you prefer to have when you travel?


An e-ticket: 74%
A paper ticket: 26%


This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions

[Kiwi Flyer]

There are circumstances when it is advantageous to have a paper ticket.

[Nobby]

There are circumstances when it is advantageous to have a paper ticket.

What are they?

[novacatz]

What are they?

When you deal with the officious, inane, stupid Phillippine security officials who will only let people with a valid air ticket into the airport and they recognise paper tickets a lot faster than e-tickets (and sometimes cause a huge ruckus if you get a particularly stupid one who insists it isn't a 'real ticket').

[Kiwi Flyer]

When computers are down
When you need to make a change and your at an airport with no agent for the airline the ticket was issued on
When you want to skip a flight (tear out the coupon on paper ticket)
etc

[Dave Noble]

I would say that the benefits of e-tickets outweigh any drawbacks.

e.g. purchasing a DONE4 in BKK ( for example ), not having to have a paper ticket shipped to Australia or spending a day in BKK to collect a ticket

Also, purchasing tickets from places such as TIP becomes easier

Dave

[Robert Barlow]

I would much prefer etickets - one less thing to worry about. I wonder how jurisdictions that need to see that you have a return ticket out of there will cope with this? Also had an experience at NOU where there was a large crowd at the airport and the local gendarmes were not allowing anyone access to the terminal without a passpot and a ticket. How do you convince a French gendarme that you really need to catch the QF big bird back to SYD?

[Kiwi Flyer]

I would much prefer etickets - one less thing to worry about. I wonder how jurisdictions that need to see that you have a return ticket out of there will cope with this? Also had an experience at NOU where there was a large crowd at the airport and the local gendarmes were not allowing anyone access to the terminal without a passpot and a ticket. How do you convince a French gendarme that you really need to catch the QF big bird back to SYD?

You need to take a printout of the eticket. If you don't have one or lost it, then can cause big problems for you since you then need to find a computer with access to the relevant system to view the eticket. You might think this is no problem with viewmytrip etc, but some airlines don't link in and if the relevant airline counter isnt open can cause a headache (read get taken away for interrogation and denied access until you can prove it). This is one area where paper tickets are preferred.

[Robert Barlow]

You need to take a printout of the eticket. If you don't have one or lost it, then can cause big problems for you since you then need to find a computer with access to the relevant system to view the eticket. You might think this is no problem with viewmytrip etc, but some airlines don't link in and if the relevant airline counter isnt open can cause a headache (read get taken away for interrogation and denied access until you can prove it). This is one area where paper tickets are preferred.

Good advice, Kiwi Flyer. I always take a printout of the tax invoice for tax reasons and carry it with me when I travel just in case there are any problems. I also save the emailed eticket and tax invoice in a file on my computer. I suppose in the electronic era, I just can't trust the machines to the extent that I don't feel the need to have a paper backup