Abacus Initiatives Boost for E-Ticketing in South Korea

Electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) in South Korea will receive a major boost this month with two initiatives by travel and leisure facilitator, Abacus International.

From May 25, Abacus-connected travel agencies in Korea market will be able to issue e-tickets exclusively for South Korea-based Asiana Airlines. Asiana will be the 22nd airline to be e-ticket enabled by Abacus.

From July, e-tickets for Asiana flights will be available from Abacus-connected travel agencies in Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

“This initiative is a step forward in the adoption of e-ticketing in South Korea,” said See-Toh Hon Chew, Vice-President, Air Content Associates at Abacus International. “E-ticketing has enjoyed rapid adoption in Asia-Pacific because they offer substantial benefits to airlines, travel agencies and travelers. E-tickets are more secure and more convenient than traditional paper tickets, and offer significant cost savings,” said Mr See-Toh.

“With travel growing in popularity and its high levels of Internet connectivity, we expect e-tickets to be enormously popular with travelers in South Korea, both on Asiana Airlines and our other partner airlines,” said Mr See-Toh. 

Mr. Arnold Choe, General Manager, GDS Team, Asiana Airlines agrees that e-tickets will simplify bookings for both passengers and airlines. “E-ticketing leverages more effectively on GDS technologies for bookings, giving our passengers greater control over their travel arrangements and enabling us to streamline our revenue accounting processes,” he said.

Abacus has played a key role in enabling e-ticketing in 10 regional markets, including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Its goal is to enable 60 per cent of Abacus tickets to be e-ticketable before the end of 2005.

In 2004, the total number of e-tickets issued through the Abacus system increased more than 290% over 2003. As a proportion of the total number of tickets issued through the Abacus system, e-tickets have more than doubled from around 7% in 2003, to over 15.5% of total tickets issued in 2004.

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