DUSHANBE, June 2, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s national air carrier, TajikAir, intends to introduce an e-ticketing system starting from the next year.
The source at TajikAir said that work on preparation of appropriate documents for introducing to the e-ticketing system is currently under way.
“If all issues are resolved be froe the end of this year, the system will be introduced in 2009,” the source said.
We will recall that Dushanbe airport has launched a new system of automated registration of passengers and their luggage. To date, six passenger control points at the Dushanbe airport have been installed with the electronic passenger registration system. The use of the new automated passenger registration system significantly cuts the time to board the aircraft. The registration procedure will take not more than 30-40 seconds per one passenger. No more manual coupon counts, no more manual registration of passengers. An airport of destination will have information about the number of passengers and their luggage five minutes before plane’s taking off from Dushanbe, the press service said. The system is connected to a common international center for data processing that simplifies work with transit passengers.
In the meantime, Computerworld reported on August 29, 2007 that the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a global body representing more than 240 airlines, has placed its last order for paper tickets and will move to an all-electronic ticketing system by June 1, 2008.
The IATA, which operates all but 6% of global international flights, said it had placed its last order for 16.5 million paper tickets to supply the 60,000 accredited IATA travel agents worldwide until May 31.
“This is ”last call” for paper tickets,” Giovanni Bisignani, the IATA”s director general and CEO, said in the statement. “It”s been 38 months since we launched the drive for 100% e-ticketing as part of IATA”s Simplifying the Business initiative. E-ticketing went from 16% in June 2004 to 84% today. And in just 278 more days, the paper ticket will become a collector”s item.”
By moving to 100% e-ticketing, the airlines will save $9 per passenger annually, adding up to $3 billion in savings for the industry, according to the statement. The IATA said doing away with paper tickets will also save 50,000 trees per year.
