E-Tickets Only Starting June 1
Paper Is a Luxury Airlines Can't Afford
Kendra Marr, Washington Post, 2/23/2008 (excerpted)
Mark your calendars: In 100 days, airlines around the world plan to stop issuing paper tickets.
The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing 240 airlines, announced yesterday that starting June 1, its members will use only electronic tickets. The airlines, which include the big U.S. carriers, account for 94 percent of international air traffic.
Exceptions will be made for small airlines that can't afford new computer systems, but they'll have to pay for the privilege.
"It's about simplifying the business," said Steve Lott, the association's spokesman. The change will make it easier and cheaper for airlines to issue tickets, he said.
The IATA is the clearinghouse for paper tickets, distributing ticket stock that airlines and travel agents order from specialized printers. On June 1, it will stop that service.
"It is a hard-and-fast deadline," Lott said.
E-tickets aren't as prevalent in other countries as they are in the United States, where they are used in 97 percent of air travel. In Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, that figure is only 54 percent because of legislation that banned e-tickets until last year. Some airlines, which are typically small and fly to remote regions, will now have to choose whether to invest in new computer systems or begin buying and processing paper tickets themselves. Some of the smallest airlines may do so because it will be cheaper, Lott said.
For most major airlines, e-tickets will cut costs. While a paper ticket costs $10 to create and process, an e-ticket costs $1. The switch will save the industry $3 billion a year, according to the IATA.
If passengers do not have access to the Internet or printers, they can continue to purchase tickets by phone or through travel agents. Instead of receiving paper tickets in advance, customers will be asked to pick them up at airline counters or kiosks in airports.
Airlines still need to work out some kinks. Computer reservation systems need to be reprogrammed for infants who don't take seats but need boarding passes.
Airlines also will adjust their systems to allow passengers on two-leg trips to transfer from one airline to another and check their bags through. In the past, paper tickets were required because different reservation systems didn't work together.
The switch to all-electronic ticketing is part of a program started in June 2004, when high oil prices and financial losses prompted airlines to reconsider their business models. Plans include ticketing kiosks where passengers can check in for flights on five different airlines.