The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2004–2008
IATA made airlines give up paper tickets by setting one hard date
IATA forced 100% e-ticketing by June 1, 2008, turning a paper ticket costing $10 to process into one costing $1.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) · member airlines · travel agents
the move
Before e-ticketing, airlines and agents handled millions of paper tickets each year, printed on special stock and exchanged through IATA's settlement system. Each one cost about $10 to process.
IATA launched a drive for 100% e-ticketing, but adoption only moved from 16% in June 2004 to 84% by mid-2007. Progress was real but slow, and the remaining paper hung on.
why it works
- A hard date lets parties plan: printers decommission, agents migrate their systems and airlines finish the switch by a known day.
- The deadline was attached to the settlement system, so anyone issuing paper through that plan was simply cut off.
- E-tickets were far cheaper, so once the switch was mandatory the industry's cost collapsed.
what transfers
When a change is obviously cheaper but nobody moves, a single committed deadline is what converts a nice idea into a standard.
what came after
IATA met the June 1, 2008 deadline and airlines moved to paperless travel. The industry saved around $3 billion a year in processing costs, and the travel agent's paper system was replaced by electronic records and machine-readable travel documents.
references
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