02 June 2008
In 2004, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), of which
Air Astana is a member, set an ambitious goal to completely replace
paper tickets with Electronic Tickets (E-Tickets) worldwide, by 1 June
2008.
The benefits of E-Tickets were significant, as it was
calculated that on average, a paper ticket costs the industry up to USD
10.00 to produce and process, whilst an E-Ticket cost only USD 1.00 to
process. This translated to a saving of almost USD 3 Billion per year
worldwide. Additionally, an E-Ticket offers greater flexibility and
convenience to the passenger and Travel Agent in regards to making
changes to the itinerary.
In order to achieve 100% E-Tickets, many airlines had
to implement robust computer programs, airports had to upgrade their
computing infrastructure and the Global Distribution Systems (GDS)
worldwide, which are accessed by Travel Agents, had to be upgraded – in
all a huge undertaking costing millions of dollars and involving
hundreds of people.
So you may ask, “what is the status of E-Tickets in Air Astana?”
“It fills me with enormous pride to see the progress
that Air Astana has made in this project. After making a commitment to
change its airline systems to Amadeus in early October 2006, a dedicated
team of specialist from several departments within the airline set
about the task of achieving this goal, and the airline issued its first
E-Ticket in December 2006,” said Gerry Mitchell, Air Astana’s IT
Director.
To-date, Air Astana has implemented E-Tickets on all 9
major GDS systems world-wide, it has signed and implemented 27 key
E-Ticket Interline agreements with these airlines:
- Aeroflot
- Alitalia/Alitalia Express
- All Nippon Airways
- Asiana Airlines
- Atlas Jet International Airways
- Austrian Airlines
- Bangkok Airlines
- British Airways
- British Midland Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- China Southern Airlines
- Continental Airlines
- Czech Airlines
- Dragonair
- Emirates Airlines
- Hahn Air
- Jat Airways
- KLM
- Korean Airlines
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- Malaysia Airlines
- Northwest Airlines
- Qantas Airways
- Qatar Airways
- Siem Reap Airways
- Singapore Airlines
and it has upgraded the computing infrastructure and
introduced E-Ticketing procedures at all of its international and
domestic airports, so that from 1 June, Air Astana will be fully 100%
E-Ticket compliant.
Additionally, Air Astana played a leading role,
working closely with IATA in establishing an e-BSP (Electronic Banking
Settlement Plan) system for airlines and Travel Agents within
Kazakhstan, and in doing so, becoming only the second country in the
world, with such a sophisticated settlement system.
“The E-Ticket project was a major undertaking,
involving many people within Air Astana including Reservations,
Inventory, Sales and Marketing, Check-in staff, Airports, IT and
Finance. It was a fantastic example of how close team-work and
cooperation can overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges – a truly
fantastic effort by all concerned. Additionally, now that we are 100%
E-Ticketable, the airline will be able to introduce other initiatives
such as Internet Check-in, Self Check-in Kiosks and improved Web
Distribution which were difficult with paper based systems” said Gerry.
Footnote: Paper Tickets will continue to be accepted, where they were issued in the past and still remain valid for travel.