Asian e-ticketing surges
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THElevel of airline bookings issuedas electronic tickets in the Asia-Pacificregion has passed the 60%threshold, according to figures releasedyesterday by Singapore based GDSprovider Abacus.
InMar 61.4% of tickets were issuedelectronically – close to doublethe 35.5% level for the samemonth in 2006. It’sstill a far cry from the 100% levelmandated by IATA for 31 Dec 2007,which is the date set for the withdrawalof all paper tickets.
Abacusceo Don Birch said the figuresshowed the market “can adoptthis cost-saving initiative at an accelerating rate, and it will needto continue doing so to hit IATA’starget”.
Hesaid that more than 81% of allAbacus tickets are ET-ready, andthe figures showed extremely stronggrowth in e-ticketing from India and South Korea(both up 106%),the Philippines(80%) and Thailand(93%).
Therewas also growth from otherAsian markets including Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore aswell as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Birchsaid as well as being more convenient,airlines and travel agenciessaved about US$9 per ticketissued “so there is a motivationto adapt as fast as the airlinescan prepare their systems andprocesses”.
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