Airline Fanatic

The date is fast approaching when all air travel will be done using electronic tickets.  For the most part this is because of the innate advantages electronic tickets offer over their older paper brothers.  There are of course plenty of countries lagging in this effort, so global legislation enforced by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has made electronic ticketing mandatory for all airlines as of June 1, 2008.  The IATA recently placed an order for 16.5 million paper tickets to supply those airlines bringing up the rear in the race to convert over to e-tickets, but that order was their final one.

China and Russia are the two last major countries trying to meet the deadline in this global effort.  In 2005 for example only 10% of Chinese travelers used e-tickets, but that number skyrocketed to 90% by 2006.   Russia actually had legislation forbidding airlines from using e-tickets (who knows why), which leaves them in last place with only 42% total tickets being electronic. Most countries, even impoverished ones, are ready for the transition however, with Nepal and Papua New Guinea both using 100% e-tickets.

[Via the New York Times]