E-ticketing saves a packet for airlines

There is a price war going on in the skies. International fares to certain destinations have dropped substantially, thanks to new players being allowed to fly internationally.

With fares dropping and carriers being forced to play catch up, costs have come into focus like never before for the airline industry, which is just coming into its own, post the September 11 attacks in the US, four years back.

One of the many ways to slash costs has been staring these carriers in the face for some time but for whatever reason has not yet been embraced fully by airlines, barring a few names like Air Deccan.

We are talking e-ticketing. Just compare this. Around 14.5 lakh airline tickets are being issued every month in India out of which around 11 lakh are domestic tickets.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) numbers, the issue of a physical ticket costs an airline up to $10 approximately, while an e-ticket costs around $1. This means that the Indian airline industry can look at saving more than a whopping $120 million every year only on ticket related costs.

The IATA is looking at 100 per cent implementation of e-ticketing worldwide by 2007 as according to the association, this will save the global aviation industry up to $3 billion per year.

An e-ticket does not involve printing, postage, shipping, storage and accounting costs as everything is automated. Collateral material such as envelopes and ticket jackets are not required as well.

In North America around 40 per cent of ticket bookings are done through the e-ticketing method, but in India, this percentage is fairly low at less than 10 per cent.

Vivekanand, officer, customer services, Air-India, says, "We have started mandatory e-ticketing on some routes like US-India and UK-India, besides for domestic flights as well. However, there has been delay in full-fledged use of e-ticketing as we need to train the agents with regard to customer reservation system through this method."

Imran Naqvi, branch manager of Friends Global Travels Limited (a division of FCm Travel Solutions) says, "Many international airlines that operate in India are making it mandatory for us to issue e-tickets instead of the regular ones. For instance, if we issue regular tickets for Lufthansa Airlines instead of e-tickets, we will have to pay a penalty of Rs 1,000 per ticket."

Friends Global Travels Limited is into corporate travel and Naqvi says that they have been trying to educate the corporate executives about the advantages involved in e-ticketing besides trying to allay fears with regard to security issues.

"Around 60 per cent of the people with whom we deal with, are comfortable with e-ticketing today," he says, adding that the remaining are not because they presume that a physical ticket is safe as compared to an e-ticket.

When a person books a ticket electronically, a printable itinerary receipt is displayed on the system, which is a confirmation of travel. An email with the status of the booking is also received.

The person then has to just check-in the airport with valid photo identification (driving license, photo credit card etc) and the printed itinerary receipt. The boarding pass is instantly issued against the itinerary receipt.

"Besides being a convenient and fast alternative to the regular paper ticket, an e-ticket is safe as there are no issues about the ticket getting stolen or lost because everything is electronically stored. Moreover, you can get the e-ticket printed at your own home or office without worrying about collecting the ticket from the airline or travel agent's office. This apart, people need to realise that changes in e-tickets can also be made instantly as it is electronically stored," Vivekanand says.

Incidentally, only agents who are certified by the IATA are allowed to issue e-tickets. This according to many has been a bottleneck in implementing e-ticketing as in the past, sub-agents outnumbered IATA accredited agents.

But Naqvi says, "The numbers of sub-agents are thinning today. So this issue will no longer be a hindrance for implementing e-ticketing."

Mario Mascarenhas, general manager, passenger sales, (Andhra Pradesh) for Lufthansa Airlines says, "We provide e-ticketing facilities from almost all our destinations in India. The reason for it not being implemented at some places is because the security personnel at the airport need to be trained about the e-ticketing procedure so that passengers do not face any inconvenience. For instance, we ensure that airport personnel are given a list of the passengers with e-tickets to avoid confusion," Mascarenhas says. "E-ticketing will catch up soon in India too," he adds.