News

SMS and e-tickets flying high

July 5, 2004

IRELAND - By the end of 2004, 24 percent of airlines expect that e-tickets will comprise more than half their ticket sales, according to an article on ElectricNews.net .

The article cites results from the Airline IT Trends Survey 2004. The survey also predicts that a third of airlines intend to offer Web access, e-mail, and SMS services by 2007. By the end of this year, nearly 15 percent of airlines will offer SMS on-board their aircraft, with another 17 percent planning to install the service by the end of 2006.

"Over the coming years many more airlines will start offering passengers the opportunity to use a range of connectivity services while in flight," SITA President, Peter Buecking said. "While primarily aimed at enhancing passenger services, these technologies can also offer considerable operational and safety benefits to the airlines."

Rapid growth is also predicted in self-service kiosks. According to the article, by the end of 2006, most carriers will have the majority of passengers using kiosks.

"As airlines aim to simplify their business and cut costs they are increasing the speed at which IT is transforming passenger processing and customer service systems," Buecking concluded. "IT is the critical component to achieving the recent targets The International Air Transport Association (IATA) members have agreed for e-ticketing, common use self service kiosks, radio frequency identification (RFID) baggage tags and barcodes on boarding passes."