Passengers bid farewell to paper airline tickets

Paper airline tickets have now become a quaint piece of world aviation history, as all airlines in the United Kingdom and throughout much of the western world have agreed to stop printing them, starting this weekend. Over the course of the past four years, the UK–and much of continental Europe and North America-has been gradually phasing out paper tickets, replacing them instead with electronic travel documents. The main reasoning behind bringing an end to paper tickets-which have been a hallmark of the industry for the past 75 years-is not so much to save trees, but rather to save on spiralling operating costs for airlines.

According to the Telegraph, nearly 200 countries will also follow the UK in eliminating paper tickets over the coming days, as travel agents are instructed to issue e-tickets instead. This means that rather than receiving the customary packet or printed ticket slips, usually placed in an envelope, passengers will simply be handed a print-out itinerary of their flight, which includes a reservation code and, in many cases, a bar code. In most cases, they will be e-mailed this information. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted that virtually no paper tickets are likely to ever be produced again, since some 300 carriers that are registered with the organization now only issue e-tickets. Lorne Riley, an IATA spokesperson, told journalists that the final 1,000 paper tickets have already been printed, but they will be offered to museums and to industry workers as souvenirs of an era that has been relegated to the dustbins of history.

www.iata.org