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ČSA trashes the paper ticket

Airlines promising to go 100 percent electronic next month

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 14th, 2008 issue

The paper airline ticket will soon be relegated to the dust bin of history.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set a deadline for all of its carriers, including the state-owned operator Czech Airlines (ČSA), to offer only electronic tickets by June 1.
ČSA already sells 91 percent of all tickets in electronic form, said spokeswoman Daniela Hupáková. That is a bit behind the European average for IATA members, which sat at 95 percent as of March.
Come next month, ČSA will only offer paper tickets in rare circumstances, such as some multi-airline flights done in cooperation with partners who do not support e-ticketing, Hupáková said.
The IATA, which represents nearly all of the world’s large airlines, says that by moving to 100 percent e-ticketing, the industry will save $3 billion (48.6 billion Kč) per year. On average, a paper ticket costs $10 to process, while an e-ticket costs $1.
The savings achieved by cutting paper tickets are especially important for traditional national carriers grappling with the rising price of jet fuel. And it will help level the playing field against low-cost carriers, many of which, like Slovakia’s SkyEurope, have never used paper tickets.
E-tickets should not be confused with tickets bought on the Internet. Clients can still buy their tickets at travel agencies and don’t need a credit card to do so, Hupáková said.
CK Fischer travel agency has been selling e-tickets exclusively for some time, said spokesman Daniel Plovajko.
“It’s a formality. It won’t be possible to issue paper tickets, but they have practically fallen out of use anyway,” he said. The IATA deadline will not create any cost-savings for travel agencies, he said.
Now that the disappearance of paper tickets is official, even their diehard fans will be forced to change their habits, said Tomio Okamura, a spokesman for the Czech Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents(AČCKA). AČCKA members welcome the transition to e-tickets, since it speeds up the whole booking process, he said.
“For customers, e-tickets are a more comfortable and practical solution,” said Plovajko. “They don’t have to visit their local travel agency or the airlines’ offices to get the printed ticket or wait for postal delivery any longer,” he added.
More importantly, the tickets can’t go missing.
“Tickets have been stolen [by pickpockets] several times,” Okamura said. Once, a thief lifted a tour leader’s briefcase, including the whole group’s plane tickets.
Despite all the benefits of eliminating paper, for those traveling to more exotic locations life may become just a little more difficult. If an airline in Africa still uses paper and does not have an office in Prague that could sell the ticket, buyers are out of luck.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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