Hang on to your ticket stub. It will be a collector’s item once IATA persuades airlines to replace paper tickets with the computer-generated variety. Sheron Crossman reports The booming world of e-travel is just too good to be true. A rare win, win situation for all. Since their arrival in the mid-1990s, e-tickets have swept the airline industry, loved by passengers for their convenience, airlines for their cost benefits, and IT companies for transforming their profit margins. And with techno-travel progress at its current rate, the future for business travellers looks nothing less than revolutionary. Airport check-in queues, currently log-jammed by tight security controls, could be a thing of the past when radio-frequency identification (RFID) sweeps through our airports. Part radio-chip, part radio-transmitter, an RFID tag can store almost any information and be tracked by a transmitter. Terrorist suspects will be detected before they so much as blink at the check-in staff. While RFID is a few years off yet, self-service check-in, either through airport kiosks, by mobile phone or on the web, will have been implemented by 72% of airlines by the end of this year. And probably sooner if the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has its way. If anyone needed proof of e-ticketing’s popularity, IATA’ s 2007 Corporate Air Travel Survey reveals all. Some 88% of respondents preferred electronic tickets over the paper variety. The main reasons included not needing to bring a conventional ticket for check in (71%), receiving instant e-ticket confirmation by e-mail (64%), and the ability to access them anywhere at any time (49%). The results have pleased Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO. In 2004, he launched Simplifying the Business, a global campaign aimed at slashing airline costs through better use of technology. His strategy is working. “Passengers value convenience, not complex processes and unnecessary bits of paper,” he says. “We’re on track to make paper tickets a piece of our industry’s history by the end of 2007. It’s good news for passengers, who clearly appreciate the benefits, and for airlines, which will make savings of $3 billion a year with 100% conversion to e-ticketing.” IATA represents 250 airlines, 94% of international scheduled airline traffic, and under Bisignani’s strategy, members must make e-tickets standard practice or lose access to the association’s 60,000 accredited travel agencies. For business travellers, e-tickets are already the norm in the US and most of Europe. But what of the global picture? By November 30, 2006, with the 2007 deadline 384 days away, Bisignani says IATA had a 72% success rate. “There are some great success stories – China has gone from 10% to 90% within a year,” he claims. The director general admits, however, that there are some worries: “E-ticketing is illegal for Russian airlines. It is the only place in the world where the government requires a piece of paper. IATA proposed a legislative solution; it’s been a year and the government has not acted. The danger is that Russia gets left behind.” The other area for concern is the Middle East, where only 13% of airlines issue electronic tickets. Says Bisignani: “There are no technical or government issues; the business case for savings is clear. It is simply a matter of delivering. I am not sounding the alarm bell. We have 150 people dedicated to helping our members meet the target and achieve the promised $3 billion savings.” That they are achieving their aim is apparent. Azerbaijan Airlines is launching e-ticket sales this month; Vietnam Airlines is to start selling them next month; and in Calcutta, sales of e-tickets are on a par with those in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India’s leading IT cities. The Indian carrier Jet Airways has recorded an increase in online tickets, with 90% of passengers opting for the computer-generated variety. The airline is helping the process along, introducing a roving check-in agent at Mumbai airport who uses a hand-held interface device and hip printer to complement kiosks and desks. If successful others might well follow its example. But it is more the common use of self-service (CUSS) kiosks that business travellers are after. In its Corporate Air Travel Survey, IATA reported that 70% of respondents had used a CUSS or automated check-in during the previous 12 months, achieving a 93% approval rating. The kiosks scored highly – 31% – for the ability to check-in passengers faster. Printing boarding passes in the office or at home is also gaining in popularity, while other check-in methods, such as mobile phone and SMS, are seen as viable options in the future. Leading the CUSS kiosks pack is KLM. Last month, it became one of the first airlines in the world to introduce an SSTK (Self-Service Transfer Kiosk). Passengers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport who have missed their connecting flight can now quickly print out a new boarding pass without having to join the queue at the transfer desk. KLM believes the innovation will cut the number of travellers at the transfer counter by more than 80%, and by up to 100% once all IATA airlines have adopted e-ticketing. The first 12 SSTKs will be installed on the intercontinental E Pier, and the service will be enhanced to allow for seat changes, to check country entry requirements or to contact a KLM call centre for alternative travel plans.
The next big thing in travel… Radio frequency identification (RFID) is already up and running in the US, speeding cars through highway tolls, used for paying for fuel from a new wave of key-fobs, and employed by giants like Wal-Mart to streamline their order systems. Now the US government is looking to build RFID into passports, airport check-ins and at immigration desks, the traveller’s photograph and identifying data appearing automatically on screens or the immigration agent’s monitor. “Think of it as a sort of super barcode that can be read at a distance, even when hidden from the reader’s line of sight,” says RFID’s Dr Marvin Cetron. The snag is that at present RFID tags don’t always work and, worse still, there are no common standards for RFID systems worldwide.
| 
|
