"We want the government to intervene on the issue, especially when our national carrier, Air India, itself is not 100 per cent e-ticket-enabled," Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) President C Venkateshwara Prasad told reporters here today.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set June 1, 2008, as the deadline for withdrawal of paper tickets, which means that it would process 100 per cent e-tickets from that date.
Of the 7-8 million international tickets, which are issued from India, close to 1.5 million or 20 per cent of them are paper tickets.
However, in domestic travel, about 95 per cent of the tickets issued are e-tickets and five per cent are paper ones.
IATA issues two million paper tickets to India each year.
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"We are not at all opposed to the concept as such, but as the airlines globally are not yet 100 per cent e-ticket ready, the journey ahead is going to be costly and cumbersome," he said.
There are certain situations in which an agent issues a paper ticket, Prasad said, adding, "currently, about 15 per cent of all tickets issued in India are paper tickets."
"Tickets for people travelling in groups, infants and multi-sector and multi-airline tickets are all issued in the form of paper tickets. All these will be hit hard if the IATA goes ahead with its plan," Prasad said.