BRITISH Airways has launched a huge marketing campaign to raise greater awareness of electronic ticketing.
The airline began using e-ticketing on domestic services in February 1997 and has since expanded the service to most of Europe and all transatlantic routes except Tampa.
BA has refused to give figures on how many travellers use e-tickets, but it is believed the service has not proved as popular as the airline had hoped.
The marketing drive includes mailing leaflets to 140,000 business travel consultants, corporate travellers and Executive Club members and an incentive scheme to reward Executive Club members who use e-tickets.
It has also launched a poster campaign in airports aimed at leisure travellers, using the slogan ‘Give waiting the big E, it’s easy with e-ticket’, and will launch an Internet site in mid-October which will enable users to see for themselves how an e-ticket works.
Business marketing executive Tania Devereux said e-ticketing is popular among people who are confident with technology, but other passengers prefer to use paper tickets.
“We want to give e-ticketing a big push – it is a question of selling it to the mass market.
“We want people to feel confident about using e-tickets and get them to change their behaviour towards them.”
One concern is that passengers worry that if they arrive at the airport without a ticket, there may not be a record of their booking and they may not be able to fly.
But Devereux said:”We are very confident that if a passenger has booked an e-ticket, all the information is in their credit card or Executive Club card. There is nothing to fear.”
She added that BA will be targeting the service particularly at consumers going on short breaks.
“For these people, when time is of the essence, e-ticket could prove a good alternative to the paper ticket.”