News

Airlines industry plans global paperless tickets

June 20, 2004

SINGAPORE-Paper airline tickets will soon be a thing of the past according to an article on NewsFactor Network.

The ticketless travel trend (along with a move toward self-service check-in, home printing of boarding passes and using RFID tags for luggage) is a result of the effort to lower operating costs and improve customer service.

At the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Singapore, airline leaders announced that there was a commitment to a global paperless ticketing system by 2007.

"We will drive paper tickets out of the system, reduce airline costs and at the same time improve customer service," Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and CEO said.

The airline industry needs to re-engineer many of its processes in order to simplify its business, Bisignani said. The paperless ticketing scheme could save it up to $3 billion in direct costs, he predicts. A paper ticket is $9 more expensive than an e-ticket, he points out, noting that IATA's members distribute 300 million paper tickets every year.

Increased Automation

According to the article, IATA has developed a four-point plan to reduce airlines' running costs through better use of technology.

They want to have all self-service check-in terminals follow the same industry standards, with self-service kiosks located throughout airports and allow tickets printed at home to be read by a bar code scanner upon boarding.

"Now it is time for IATA to take the next step and apply the latest technologies to 21st century business practice," Bisignani says.