Paper airline tickets about to get even more rare
— -- Paper airline tickets are heading for extinction abroad, and they're becoming increasingly rare in the USA.
On June 1, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade group representing 240 airlines, will stop providing paper tickets for flights booked by travel agents abroad. In the USA, the Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) says that, by the end of this year, more than 99% of airline tickets issued by travel agents will be electronic, or e-tickets.
It's been a rapid decline for paper tickets. More than 92% of all tickets issued by travel agents abroad in 2001, and more than 60% issued three years ago, were paper. But paper tickets are more costly for airlines and travel agents, and many airlines charge extra for them. E-tickets are more convenient for passengers, eliminating lost tickets, making itinerary changes easy and enabling flight check-in by computer, phone or airport kiosk. "The paper ticket will become a museum piece," predicts Bryan Wilson, IATA's program director for electronic tickets in Geneva.
Most airline tickets are sold by travel agents, though the percentage has been declining with the growth of the Internet and direct airline sales to consumers. Travel agents sell 55% to 75% of tickets outside the USA and at least 55% in the USA, according to estimates from IATA and ARC, which serve as middlemen that settle the transactions between airlines and travel agents.
E-tickets also dominate U.S. airlines' direct sales to consumers. JetBlue, for example, says its tickets are 100% electronic. Northwest Airlines says 99.9% of its direct and travel agent sales are e-tickets, and it expects to reach 100% by the end of 2008.
"The only reason we use paper is that certain areas — mostly some of the more remote Latin American areas — are sometimes unable to handle electronic ticketing," says American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner. "However, that is such a rarity that we are now already around 98% to 99% electronic."
Babies get paper tickets
Related Stories
ABC News Live