Asia Pacific’s leading travel facilitator Abacus International today announced it had issued 7.5 million electronic air tickets in the first half of 2007, 37% more than the last six months of 2006. President and CEO of…
Asia Pacific’s leading travel facilitator Abacus International today announced it had issued 7.5 million electronic air tickets in the first half of 2007, 37% more than the last six months of 2006. President and CEO of Abacus International Mr Don Birch said that as of June 2007, the proportion of airline tickets issued as electronic tickets by the company now stands at 67%, generated by 63 leading airlines in the region, up from 48 at the end of last year.
“As of today 97% of Abacus tickets are e-ticket (ET) enabled, placing Abacus and our airline partners on target ahead of the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s goal of 96.5% ET-readiness by the end of May 2008,” Mr Birch said.
Nevertheless, Mr Birch welcomed the recent decision by (IATA) to extend the deadline for electronic ticketing to 31 May 2008, and to target 96.5% adoption as opposed to the original 100%.
“The revised deadline and slightly reduced target for the overall proportion of e-ticketing is more realistic looking across all the carriers in the industry and will allow a more orderly transition and more time for system enhancements and converting interline ET agreements.”
Abacus International Vice President of Airline Marketing and North Asia, Mr Patrick Lai said that Abacus’ leadership in e-ticketing was exemplified by the strong progress it was making in its provision of ET to key airlines in the region.
“By providing ET distribution in recent months for two of the biggest airlines in Southeast Asia – Malaysia Airlines (MH) and lately Garuda (GA) – Abacus is intent on making electronic ticketing pervasive in the region. In Indonesia for example, the proportion of e-tickets issued by its national airline has grown by almost 59% in July.” Outside of Indonesia, Abacus has also implemented ET for Garuda in markets like Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. Other markets such as Philippines, Taiwan and Cambodia will be cutting over in August 2007.
Ms Devi Yanti, VP Revenue Management from Garuda said, “Our long-term partnership with Abacus benefits Garuda as we progressively streamline our business. With its strong presence in the Indonesian market and a network of more than 15,000 travel agents across the region, Abacus is a natural partner for Garuda to realise our ET-capability with the comfort of knowing that we have ready access to a growing customer base.”
Abacus has also been working with other airlines to facilitate a smooth transition to e-ticketing with its innovative Electronic Transitional Auto Ticketing (eTAT) solution.
Pakistan’s national carrier is an example where Abacus provided eTAT since May 2006 before the market’s eventual full BSP ET operations in March 2007. These transitional capabilities enabled the airline to seamlessly adopt BSP ET at the current adoption rate of 62% in Pakistan itself. When the airline implemented BSP ET outside of Pakistan, the experience enabled them to move up to 80% adoption in a market like Hong Kong in just two months.
The Abacus eTAT solution has also enabled Royal Brunei Airlines to begin ET in Brunei – a non-BSP market. Implemented in April this year, ET now accounts for 85% of Royal Brunei tickets issued in Brunei.
“Separately, we also work closely with smaller regional carriers to support their ET implementation. An example will be Lao Airlines which will be cutover to ET in markets like Thailand and Cambodia even when Laos, its home base, is not a BSP market yet. It is this kind of commitment that allows us to be ahead of the curve in ET-readiness,” said Mr Lai.
“From the outset, Abacus has understood the challenges faced by GDS, airlines and travel agents in the push towards 100% e-ticketing. We are very committed to supporting this industry effort and to ensuring our airline partners get across the line on time,” Mr Lai added.
E-ticketing is a real-time paperless method for airlines and travel agents to issue tickets. Individual ticket information is stored within the airline’s reservation system and can be retrieved and processed electronically, reducing the amount of paper ticket inventory and hassle in re-issuance of misplaced printed tickets.
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