Wednesday, June 11, 2008

It's time to bid farewell to airlines' paper tickets

If you're one of the dwindling number of travelers using a paper ticket to get on an airplane, the airline industry has a message for you: The paper ticket's almost gone.

Now airlines charge about $50 for a paper ticket, but soon paper tickets will be available only in rare circumstances.

The International Air Transport Association, which met Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia, reported that 80 percent of all airline tickets bought outside the U.S. at the end of April were e-tickets.

"If you traveled here using a paper ticket, frame it and donate it to your local museum," Giovanni Bisignani, the chief executive of the IATA, told attendees.

At American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, almost 99 percent of its tickets sold worldwide are electronic, said Tim Smith, a company spokesman.

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