No retreat from paperless airline ticketing

The ambitious target set by the International Air Transport Association (Iata) of having no paper airline tickets by 2008 could be hampered by electricity shortages in some African countries, delegates to the World Air Transport Summit heard yesterday.

Iata, in terms of its strategy, wants all of its 261 member airlines, representing 94% of the world’s scheduled traffic, to be able to process their passenger tickets electronically by the end of next year.

The use of e-tickets will not only reduce the long queues at check-in counters but could also help reduce the costs of flying.

Iata director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said e-ticketing would result in a $3bn cut in the airline industry’s costs each year. Airlines could pass these savings on to passengers.

Bisignani said it cost $1 to process an e-ticket compared with $10 for paper. An additional $1,2bn a year would be saved with paperless cargo processing.

“The cargo business is drowning in paper. Every cargo shipment has up to 38 documents. Each year we could fill 39747 freighters with the paper wasted on this,” he said.

Airlines have until 2010 to process their cargo electronically. Iata said 39 airlines were now using e-ticketing in Africa. “But statistics can be misleading and a cause for concern. SAA is responsible for 70% of e-ticketing,” said Bisignani.

But concerns were raised that Iata’s deadline could be compromised by obstacles including electricity shortages in certain countries. Ethiopian Airline CEO Girma Wake said it was common for some cities such as Gabon’s Libreville to be without electricity for up to a week. This not only made it difficult for passengers to make their bookings but it also became a nightmare for airlines to verify the status of those who did.

Iata said it had set aside $10m to ensure all airlines gradually installed the new e-ticketing technology and that special attention would be paid to Africa, where resources were limited and the existing technology often outdated.

Bisignani said 21 of its member airlines had said they were not interested in e-ticketing and that a further 55 had no idea how to implement the technology.

He declined to mention the airlines that were reluctant to embrace e-ticketing. Noncomplying members, however, would find it impossible to enter into code-sharing deals with airlines that had complied, he said.

“There is no turning back on the implementation of e-ticketing. There is no Plan B,” said Iata outgoing chairman Robert Milton.

Iata said it was also concerned about Africa’s poor aviation safety record. Although the continent accounted for about 4% of the global air traffic, its accident rate, at 25%, was the highest.

Iata has named the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and Swaziland as countries where governments “don’t take air safety seriously”.

Of the 39 African Iata member airlines, only SAA, Kenya Airways, EgyptAir and Air Maroc have completed International Civil Aviation Organisation safety audits.

Meanwhile, Iata said the airline industry was expected to spend $112bn on fuel this year.

“Oil prices are racing ahead of efficiency gains and robbing us of our profitability,” Bisignani said.

Business Day