E-ticketing yet to catch on with A-I, Kingfisher scores a perfect 100%

Air-India (A-I) comes last among Indian full-service carriers in selling tickets through the Internet. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the carrier sells 7 per cent of its tickets through the Internet.

The IATA, which has more than 270 members in 140 countries, aims to make every member switch to 100 per cent e-ticketing by May next year as part of its "simplifying the business" (StB) programme. Indian Airlines is, however, far ahead of A-I and sells 64 per cent of its tickets through the Internet.

Among the private carriers, Kingfisher has achieved 100 per cent e-ticketing, while Jet Airways sells 84 per cent of its tickets through the Internet. Cumulative figure for airlines in India is 78 per cent.

E-ticketing is a process through which the ticketing agents (or travel portals) have access to the central reservation system of the airlines. This helps a carrier save on printing charges, transportation and storage charges, and costs of setting up an establishment.

According to industry estimates, the amount saved comes to Rs 200-400 per ticket. Air-India, which sold around 5 million tickets last year, could have saved Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore.

The two national carriers work through different reservation systems. While Air-India's ticketing system is powered by Ulysses, Indian's is an IBM-powered system. "Post merger, they will have to integrate, which will take at least another year," says an industry expert.

Globally, e-ticketing operations have seen a growth from 16 per cent in June 2004 to 84 per cent in August 2007. Most American and European carriers sell more than 90 per cent tickets through the Internet. However, some carriers like Malaysia Airlines and Saudi Airways are still lagging.

E-ticketing is just a part of the IATA's programme, whose another important component is use of common use self service (CUSS) kiosks. These kiosks will minimise the use of manned check-in counters at the airports. Being a common user terminal, one terminal will work for several airlines.

"The kiosks will function like an ATM facility in which a passenger just has to choose an airlines from a list of options, punch in his ticket details and the terminal will print a boarding card for him," said an IATA official.

Among the Indian carriers, only Jet Airways has made a headway in this regard, having installed self-service kiosks at Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore airports. It has also introduced an SMS check-in facility.

"Also, the Jet terminal is not meant for other airlines and hence is not a common airline terminal," said an industry expert.

For CUSS terminals there has to be a synergy between the airlines and the airport operators. One terminal will do the work for several check-in counters

The Delhi airport is slated to set up 30 such common user service terminals in its greenfield terminal by 2010. There will be a significant number of these terminals at the greenfield Hyderabad airport as well.

"Airports in Singapore, Washington, Vancouver, etc. are opting for these terminals. Vancouver, for instance, has more than 60 such terminals. Also, several airports in West Asia like Jordan, Dubai, Doha and Cairo either have them already or plan to install them by the end of this year," said an industry expert.

Japan's All Nippon Airways has an advanced mobile check-in facility through which a passenger can just touch the wireless-technology enabled mobile on the sensor which collects the booking data from the mobile and prints a boarding pass.