If you are one of the few remaining advocates of paper airline tickets then you had better start saving them as souvenirs as they are soon to become extinct. The International Airline Transport Association has singled out June 1st of this year as its date for the final disappearance of paper tickets and the final monopoly of electronic ticketing. There will be 100% electronic ticketing, reducing the burden on your pockets and, more importantly, saving airline companies an absolute fortune. Electronic ticketing costs airlines less than a tenth of the price of the paper versions. There are positive environmental issues to be considered too. Green organisations will certainly see this as great news.
The scheme to eradicate paper tickets for airlines began in 2004, when a mere 18% of tickets were provided electronically. Today, the figure has drastically changed to 93%, set to reach the maximum in June. The slowest movers in the transformation are the Russians along with other CIS countries, where passengers seem reluctant to part with their bits of paper. Perhaps the Russians are just a little slower to incorporate the technology required for the changes as there are no glaringly obvious reasons why the paper should not disappear. Even the most ardent traditionalists must surely agree that electronic systems are the way forward for airlines.
Many surveys have suggested that passengers are happy with the implemented changes. Although many admit to feeling a sense of security that they have concrete proof of purchase in their pockets, the added worry of losing the tickets is set to disappear forever in June.
