The International Air Transport Association (aka IATA) has set 2007 as a self-imposed deadline for doing away with paper tickets. The airlines are still going to have to implement it so we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
I realize that there’s a cost associated with design and implementation but doing nothing is also expensive. When carriers first went ticketless, they agonized over their cost savings estimates and returns on investment. All it took was one or two to realize the savings and many more jumped on the bandwagon.
Based upon past success with ticketless travel and regardless of culture issues, I would have thought the worlds airlines would have capitalized on this low hanging fruit already. To give you an idea of what is being left on the table - each paper air tickets adds an extra $9US to the airlines expenses.
IATA is also championing bar-coded boarding passes, radio frequency identification (RFID) for baggage management, common use of self-service kiosks for check-in, and paperless cargo.
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