Amadeus offers 'paperless tickets' in Thailand with ten more airlines

Amadeus today announced the launch of electronic-ticketing (e-ticketing) in Thailand for ten additional airlines. With the success of Thai Airways International (THAI) e-ticketing, which commenced in February of this year, Amadeus will now be offering e-tickets in Thailand on American Airlines, Air France, Continental Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and United Airlines.

The deployment of e-ticketing, which has been pioneered by major airlines in the United States, is expected to replace traditional ticketing, underscored by recent announcements by three of the world's leading airlines (United Airlines, Air Canada, and British Airways) to completely phase out paper ticketing by the end of 2004.

A recent airline technology trends survey indicates that already around 80 percent of sales on U.S. domestic routes, and more than 50 percent of all sales in the U.S. are e-tickets. The use of the technology is expected to increase dramatically in Asia-Pacific, with more than a third of airlines in the region expecting e-tickets to generate over 50 percent of their sales within the next three years.

Mr. David Brett, President of Amadeus Asia Pacific, said, "Amadeus e-ticketing has been implemented in a further 40 markets for 19 airlines in the second quarter of this year alone. The average cost of issuing an e-ticket is only around US$1-2 per ticket. We expect this technology to generate cost savings of up to US$7 per ticket for airlines, offering enormous savings to both the industry and consumers."

He added, "E-ticketing is also allowing travel agents to improve operational efficiencies by reducing the workload associated with the issuing, storage and distribution of traditional tickets, as well as providing airlines with faster ticket processing and monitoring. It also offers time savings to travellers through faster check-ins." 

Mr. Louis Lee, Director, Airline Business Group, Amadeus Asia Pacific, said, "Amadeus supports e-ticketing as the technology provider of choice to airlines, and fully manages and distributes electronic tickets for ten airlines. Amadeus also helps airlines maximise the value of existing alliances and code sharing relationships through the use of its Interline Gateway. This enables passengers with complex travel itineraries that involve multiple airlines, to use a single e-ticket."

Mr. Danuj Bunnag, Managing Director of Thai-Amadeus, added, "Amadeus was the first to offer e-ticketing in Thailand. We had initially anticipated issuing around 10,000 e-tickets on THAI this year, but with that figure already exceeded, and the addition of ten new airlines using the technology, we now expect this number to be much higher."