| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 17/04/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 33 |
| Copyright: Other |
Carriers urged to work together on developing e-ticket systems
THE airline industry must work together to develop e-ticketing systems for codeshare partners to finally be able to eliminate costly paper tickets, delegates were told.Continental Airlines vice-president planning and revenue Bill Brunger said the airline spent 27,000 hours developing an interline e-ticketing system for America West – a codeshare partner that generates a maximum 100 tickets a day. It has spent another 10,000 hours developing a similar system for Northwest Airlines, which is not yet finished but scheduled for launch this summer.
“It takes longer and is more difficult than anyone can imagine,” said Brunger, who claimed that interline e-ticketing is needed to continue the shift away from paper tickets.
E-ticketed travellers do not have any paper documents as bookings are accessed by reservation agents and check-in staff from a reference number or name.
Brunger said that 80% of tickets issued need to be electronic before the airline can get rid of paper vouchers.
He admitted some consumers don’t like not having a ticket, while agents like to use ticket delivery as a point of contact with clients, but he claimed that supporting the ‘sub-culture’ that has grown up around paper tickets is very expensive for airlines.
“By the end of the summer, we will be the only airline able to offer e-ticketing on three airlines but to reach 80%, we need to have interline e-ticketing systems with 14 airlines. To reach 100%, we would need to have systems that work with 100 airlines. This is something we have to do as an industry.”
Northwest Airlines: is investing in new interline e-ticketing system