Technology specialist Amadeus and air ticket distributor Hahn Air will collaborate to bring e-ticket capability to around 200 airlines ahead of the global deadline set for the end of 2007. The new facilities will be introduced to Hahn’s existing interline distribution customers including Air Berlin, Aegean Airlines, Iceland Air and Spanair in Europe. An IATA…
Amadeus to provide e-ticket services to 200 airlines
Technology specialist Amadeus and air ticket distributor Hahn Air will collaborate to bring e-ticket capability to around 200 airlines ahead of the global deadline set for the end of 2007.
The new facilities will be introduced to Hahn’s existing interline distribution customers including Air Berlin, Aegean Airlines, Iceland Air and Spanair in Europe.
An IATA deadline of full e-ticket coverage by 2008 has triggered a string of flag carriers around the world to adopt the policy, but regions such as the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Latin America have been slow to implement any changes.
Amadeus currently handles e-ticket options for 160 airlines in 139 markets.
The new deal, hailed by Amadeus as a “landmark achievement” by Amadeus, will cover around 200 new airlines in 75 countries.
Project Director E-Ticketing at IATA, Bryan Wilson, said: “For every airline which relies upon travel agents to issue their tickets, it is vital that they become fully e-ticket and interline e-ticket enabled by the end of 2007, in order to gain the cost and service advantages of e-tickets, as well as ensure that travel agents can continue to issue tickets for their flights from 2008
Hahn Air chief executive Hans Nolte admitted the IATA deadline has become a “significant issue” for a number of smaller airlines as well as bigger carriers with a limited distribution network, with some perhaps missing the deadline.
