It was bound to happen but there will be some minor problems until it is totally sorted out. According to The Beijing News air-ticket agents around the world, including China, will stop selling paper tickets from June 1.

In fact, many air travelers have not seen a paper ticket for years.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set June 1, 2008, as the deadline to stop issuing paper tickets. For that date on only e-tickets will be used.

Zhang Wei, ticket sector account supervisor from Ctrip.com, China’s top online travel agent, said e-ticketing has gained popularity in China since October 16, 2006, and most passengers have taken e-tickets in place of paper tickets.

A survey done by Ctrip.com shows 97.37% of 13,044 interviewed said they will choose e-ticketing as their first choice.

Zhang Wei said, correctly, ‘Ending the use of paper tickets can help reduce airlines’ costs.’

Domestic airlines said one e-ticket can save more than RMB20 ($2.88) compared with a paper ticket in terms of printing, sales and transportation costs. And there is the question of agencies having to provide safe storage from tickets and the relevant printing equipment.

IATA says global e-ticketing is now around the 93% mark, saving $6.5 billion annually.
Currently in China, 99% of domestic flights use e-ticketing, but only 40% of international flights.

Air China said it is ready to fully use e-ticketing. Currently 97% of its domestic and 55.5% of its international flights issue e-tickets to passengers.

Twenty-six overseas airlines declared they have charged or will charge additional fees on paper tickets in a bid to promote e-ticketing.
Source: China Daily

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has began a landmark travel countdown — it is now slightly less than 100 days to comprehensive flight e-ticketing worldwide.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO said, ‘In 100 days the paper ticket gets put in a museum. On June 1 2008, we will achieve 100% electronic ticketing.’

IATA began its global e-ticket drive in June 2004, with the dual goals of making travel and shipping more convenient and more cost efficient.

While a paper ticket costs $10 to process, e-ticketing reduces that cost to $1 which means the travel industry will save over $3 billion each year.

When the e-ticketing program began in 2004, only 18% of flight tickets issued globally were e-tickets. Today, according to IATA, global paperless penetration is 93%.

China has agreed to meet IATA’s 100% e-ticket deadline, which comes into force a little more than two months before the start of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Source: BizChina

Lehman Brothers Private Equity Partners has led the fundraising of nearly $10 million for Chinese travel search engine Qunar.com, in its first deal in China’s consumer Internet sector. A spokesman for Qunar.com declined to comment.

Qunar — which sort of sounds like the Chinese for ‘Where are you going?’ — provides pricing information for travel services. It was founded in 2005 and is China’s third largest travel search engine firm. Illustrated is chief executive and co-founder, Fritz Demopoulos.

China’s online travel services sector is dominated by Ctrip.com and eLong in which U.S. online travel giant Expedia has a majority stake.

Qunar, which makes most of its income from advertising fees, has agreements with Hilton Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels and Air China. The companies provide pricing and availability information to Qunar, which, in turn, leads customers directly to their Web sites for booking.

Analsys is of the opinion that China’s online travel industry is poised to take off because authorities are asking airlines and travel agencies to offer electronic air tickets instead of paper ones by the end of 2007.
Source: Reuters

Goodbye the airline paper ticket. We know you well even if we could never understand what the hell it is about. Now paper airline tickets will soon be phased out of the domestic market according to the the Beijing Daily now that the International Air Transport Association has stopped offering paper tickets for international routes to Chinese sales agencies.

China is expected to become the first country to use only electronic air tickets on both domestic and international routes around the end of this year.

According to the IATA’s plan, all airlines around the world will stop using paper tickets by June 1, 2008, which will save about $2.5 billion annually. For the airlines. For no one else.

IATA launched its drive for e-ticketing more than three years ago and now 84% of travelers on IATA carriers fly without paper tickets.

E-tickets account for 98% of all tickets sold on domestic routes on Ctrip.com, one of China’s largest Web-based travel agencies, and about 50% of international flights.

And is everyone happy with it? With airlines you are forced to work their way. In contrast hotels in China run about 18% of their bookings on the Internet. Which seems to suggest that a lot of people still do not trust direct bookings to work every time. The writer is a member of that intransigent group.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Chinese travelers will have more access to electronic air tickets as five new domestic carriers begin cooperation with Galileo International.

They are the China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

Galileo is the first global travel technology solutions provider to provide e-ticketing services for Shanghai and Xiamen airlines.

The Galileo global distribution system has generated more than 27 million e-tickets, accounting for almost three out of every four tickets issued. This has saved more than 5.7 hectares of forest a month.

Domestic airlines’ enthusiasm for e-ticketing came after the China Air Transport Association stopped providing paper flight tickets in October, 2006.

The agency said that China is likely to become the first country to completely operate on a paper-free ticketing system by the end of this year.What is not normally mentioned is that it saves the airlines serious money (5% of the fare would not be that far off) as it allows the airlines to sever their connections with travel agents with comparative ease. Which is why airlines love it so much.
Source: Shanghai Daily