IT services provider warns of two-tier industry comprising ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’
Smaller, poorer airlines risk being alienated as “have-nots” if the International Air Transport Association (IATA) votes to stop processing paper tickets after its self-imposed deadline of 2007 for 100% electronic ticketing, says aviation IT services provider SITA.
Speaking at the launch of the company’s Airline Information Technology Trends Survey in London last week, SITA Group president Peter Buecking said regional carriers, those in less developed countries and even financially struggling carriers in North America were suffering from “short-termism”, delaying investment in internet protocol (IP) technology because of budgetary constraints.
This could lead to a two-tier industry, with “haves” and “have-nots”, he said. “The poorer airlines will be penalised for the lack of investment and could fall even further behind.”
In the survey, produced in association with Flight International sister publication Airline Business, one quarter of airlines said they did not expect the majority of tickets sold to be electronic by 2007. This goes against IATA’s public goal to have all tickets issued electronically by the end of 2007. Electronic tickets do not have to be sold via the internet, but rely instead on storing the data electronically using internet protocols to format the data.
Buecking said SITA predicts that only 60% of tickets will be electronic by the end of next year, with smaller carriers and those in Africa and Latin America the least likely to have invested in IP technology.
“At the next annual meeting, IATA will need to address how to go the last mile and may look at both the carrot and the stick,” he said. The carrot is efficiency and the stick could be charges for the administration involved in processing paper tickets, he added.
SITA offers support to airlines in the developing world to implement the new technology, but ultimately major airlines withdrawing interline agreements with those without e-tickets will be the biggest driver, said Buecking.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/LONDON
Source: Flight International
