Beginning of a new era: airlines all set to fly high with paperless tickets

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New Delhi, May 31: stored on the airlines system. They don’t even need the print out,” Bhatia said. “We need to move to that system in India as well. Passengers should be allowed to enter a certain part of the airport without being stopped by the CISF and even the airport developers would want this to allow more number of passengers and their relatives access to the retail options at the airport,” he added.

In 2007, an IATA survey revealed that 88% of passengers prefer electronic tickets to paper tickets. The reasons include ‘do not need to bring my airline ticket(s) when I check-in’’ (71%), ‘I immediately receive my e-ticket confirmation by e-mail’ (64%), ‘I can access my e-ticket anywhere and at anytime’ (49%) and ‘I receive a receipt of my booking by e-mail’ (34%).

But not everyone is happy with the move. The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) sense a motivated move in IATA’s decision to globally discontinue the system of paper ticket issuance from June 1. They feel the move will lead to bigger foreign carriers getting an upper hand in air operations, in India and abroad.

“IATA took this decision without consulting the Indian government or the travel and tourism industry,” a TAAI representative said.

According to TAAI officials, IATA-BSP has deferred the ban of paper tickets in the US as it did not suit the American air carriers. The Canadian travel agents have gone to court against the ban on paper tickets. But IATA has refused to discuss the issue with agents in any country saying the matter was subjudice.

Even airlines like Air India don’t have a say as major foreign carriers hold the clout. That is why the move is being seen as a strategy by those foreign carriers to hit India’s national carrier, after the open sky policy allowed them to start operations in India.

According to TAAI, for the convenience of passengers, agents in India issued paper tickets in situations like interline journeys and where there is a mix of operating carriers, or e-ticket ineligible sectors etc. Once the paper ticket is done away with the passengers can no longer buy multi-carrier trips on single tickets and will have to pay for each leg separately. This will increase fares by 20 to 50%, the TAAI officials allege. Currently, 15% of tickets issued in India are paper tickets, says TAAI.