Galileo International extends E-Ticketing with Seven Airlines in Four Major Asian Markets

Galileo International, a leading global distribution services company, has extended its Electronic Ticketing customer base by activating seven additional airlines across four Asian markets in June and July, as follows:

· Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic in Japan

· KLM, KLM UK, KLM Excel, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa in Thailand

· Qantas in Singapore

· Qantas in Hong Kong

Janie Kaung, executive vice president and managing director of Galileo's Asia Pacific region, said: "E -tickets underline our business strategy of driving costs out and driving value in. It takes cost out for our suppliers and increases automation for our travel management companies since even more processes can be handled on-line without human intervention. We are firmly committed to expanding our e-ticketing capability across the Asia Pacific region."

Electronic ticketing benefits all parties in the travel equation. For airlines, electronic ticketing is considered a cost-saving tool, an enhanced service to their customers allowing booking and ticketing up to the last few minutes before flight departure. Administrative costs are greatly reduced over paper ticketing, improving the airline's revenue accounting processes. Travel agencies also benefit by no longer having to process or keep track of reams of paper tickets, saving on personnel, processing, mailing and courier costs.

E-tickets enhance the travelling experience of passengers by allowing them to enjoy the freedom, efficiency and ease of ticketless travel. Passengers carry less paper and enjoy the reassurance that they have no accountable travel document to loose. They can also take advantage of carrier Frequent Flyer e-ticket promotions.

In Asia Pacific, Galileo currently supports e-ticketing for varying numbers of carriers in particular markets:

· Hong Kong - 15 carriers 
· Australia - 13 carriers
· Singapore - 12 carriers
· Japan - 10 carriers
· New Zealand - 6 carriers
· Thailand - 7 carriers 
· Taiwan - 1 carrier

Galileo's global e-ticketing capability now extends to 47 airlines in 37 countries.