E-ticketing finally takes off in Indonesia, IATA figures show

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After long lagging behind in the e-ticketing stakes, 82 percent of airline passengers in Indonesia now access websites or telephone carriers to have their tickets issued electronically, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

This percentage, the second highest among IATA members in Asia-Pacific, is higher than the global and regional averages of 79 percent and 67 percent respectively, IATA said Friday in a statement.

IATA said that Middle Eastern and North African airlines topped the global increase in e-ticketing during the first three months, rising 16 percent to 39 percent over the same period last year "as airlines embark on a more aggressive e-ticket rollout."

During the same period, Africa-based airlines increased the volume of e-tickets issued by 12 percent to 58 percent, America-based airlines by 5 percent to 78 percent, and Asia Pacific-based airlines by 8 percent to 67 percent.

Meanwhile, the figure for Europe-based airlines rose by 4 percent to 82 percent, Commonwealth of Independent States-based airlines by 3 percent to 10 percent, North Asia-based airlines by 1 percent to 91 percent and United States-based airlines by 1 percent to 93 percent.

Since 2005, IATA has been requiring some 250 of its members serving 94 percent of international scheduled air traffic to adopt e-ticketing by the end of this year.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, which is a member of IATA, said it issued some 750,000 e-tickets and around 240,000 paper tickets in the first three months.

"Garuda is in third place among Asia Pacific airlines this year for e-ticket issuance," Garuda spokesman Pudjo Broto told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Garuda, which introduced e-ticketing last March in compliance with the IATA regulations, offers e-ticketing on all domestic routes and 24 overseas ones. The destinations not covered so far are Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Saigon in Vietnam, Beijing in China and Seoul in South Korea.

"We will have fully implemented e-ticketing for the four remaining overseas destinations by October," said Pudjo.

According to IATA, e-ticketing will result in savings of US$3 billion annually for the airline industry as processing a paper ticket costs $10, while an e-ticket costs only $1.

In addition, IATA says, passengers also benefit from e-ticketing as the inconvenience arising from lost tickets is eliminated and last minute changes are made easier.