JEDDAH, 30 May 2008 — All airlines are switching to electronic tickets from Sunday.
“There will be no more paper tickets issued for air travel by any airline or travel agency,” a senior executive of a Jeddah-based travel agency told Arab News yesterday. He said all major international carriers would stop issuing paper tickets and switch to 100 percent electronic ticketing.
The last paper tickets will be sold tomorrow. However, paper tickets issued before the deadline (May 31) will still be valid for the travel dates indicated on them.
“The decision of switching over to e-ticketing is taken by International Air Transport Association (IATA) and any member-airline issuing a paper ticket from Sunday will be penalized,” he added.
Many other local travel agencies, including Kanoo, Elaf and Attar, said most of the travel agents were fully geared for the changeover.
“E-ticketing is welcome, as it is much safer than paper tickets,” said Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi, a member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “I am happy because I don’t have to carry a bulky paper booklet around anymore,” he added.
Paper ticketing is already an anachronism in most of the world, but has been commonly used in Saudi Arabia up to now. Some travel agencies are still issuing paper tickets by default unless passengers specifically request electronic tickets.
Another disadvantage of paper tickets is that airlines charge penalties for losing them during their trips or even require passengers to re-purchase the ticket for losing it.
With electronic ticketing, the flight information and proof of purchase is in the system and only requires identification that matches the name to the fare to acquire a boarding pass.
The IATA estimates that the saving accrued from the changeover will mean a much-needed economy for the airlines in the face of huge rise in fuel costs.
The issue and handling of a paper ticket costs an airline $10. Its electronic replacement may cost $1 on average, a spokesman for IATA said, adding that it estimates that the end of the paper ticket will save 50,000 trees per year.
“An estimated five billion A4 sheets were needed to print paper tickets per annum. Twice that number were required for back-office paper work,” he added.
A spokesman for Amadeus, which has operational offices in Jeddah and other parts of the Kingdom, said it introduced electronic ticketing in some parts of the world where it had been operating for nearly five years. It has trained thousands of staff stationed at various airports to identify the e-tickets.
In fact, the IATA had decided to implement electronic ticketing globally by the end of 2007, but the deadline was extended till May 31 this year.
An IATA spokesman said some 240 carriers belonging to the world association have readied themselves to switch to all electronic ticketing, much of it through Internet booking.
IATA members account for 94 percent of world airline traffic and by the end of February, 94 percent of them had already abandoned the rectangle of stiff paper in favor of digital technology.