China is heading to become the first country in the world to operate a totally paper-free ticket system for air travel at home and abroad, the head of the airline industry's global body IATA said on December 12.

But Russia is lagging far behind most other nations in introducing an electronic, or e-ticketing, system, being alone in insisting that all travellers on its airlines have paper tickets, Giovanni Bisignani told reporters.

"China is a great success story in our programme to have all IATA member airlines using e-ticketing by the end of 2007," he said. Officials there saw the value to both travellers, airlines and the national economy of the paperless system, he added.

While a year ago only 10 percent of passengers on Chinese airlines were using e-tickets, which are purchased by individual travellers or travel agents over the Internet, the figure has now reached 90 percent.

"By the end of the year it should reach 100 percent, making China the first country in the world to reach the target," said Bisignani, whose International Air Transport Association represents carriers operating 94 percent of global air traffic.

Overall, 72 percent of all travellers on IATA airlines were now using e-ticketing, which IATA says will save the industry over US$3 billion a year when it is universal, and make it much easier for travellers to check in and change flights.

Processing Costs

IATA, under whose authority all member airlines sell tickets, says processing an e-ticket costs US$1 against US$10 for the traditional paper version.

Electronic tickets are held on each airline's passenger service system in a database integrated with the systems of all other partner carriers, making possible real-time processing of passengers and their travel routing.

Travellers identify themselves at airports and check in their baggage by citing a registration number they are given when booking a flight or by showing the credit card used to make payment, and producing an identity document.

Bisignani said there were "some worries" about achieving the 100 percent global target by December 2007, although in the Americas and Europe it is running at 74 percent, at 79 percent in North Asia, and 57 percent in Asia-Pacific.

In Russia, e-ticketing is illegal. "It is the only place in the world where the government requires paper. IATA proposed a legislative solution but it has been a year and the government has not acted," said Bisignani.

While the Russian national airline Aeroflot had made a public commitment to introduce the system, there was a serious danger that the country would be left behind.

"They (the Russians) will have to act quickly ... It will be very difficult to run an international airline outside of the system," the IATA Director-General said.

E-ticketing differs from the ticketless system run by low-cost airlines and regional carriers operating point-to-point services which do not involve stopovers or changes and do not provide for transfer to other companies.