Airlines belonging to IATA (International Air Transport Association) are no longer providing paper tickets, thus saving not only costs but also about 50,000 trees.
The move towards ticketless travel has been steadily advancing since 2004 and now, as from yesterday, airlines belonging to IATA will no longer provide paper tickets.
IATA covers 240 airlines and comprises 94% of scheduled air traffic. Ticket information will now be via email or sms text messages. The move will save on paperwork and reduce costs for the airlines.
Comment:
- If the airlines gain a significant reduction in costs, will they pass this on to the consumer?
- As you have to print out any email ticket information, bang go those trees again!
And then again, you could get stuck behind a whole gaggle of boarding passengers saying, ‘I know it’s on my phone somewhere but I’m not very good with these things’….