Travel agents have launched campaigns on several fronts to force or persuade IATA to delay a June 1 implementation of its 100% e-ticket policy outside the U.S.
Canadian agents petitioned for relief at Canada’s Competition Bureau, and several trade groups took the issue to a meeting with IATA officials in Geneva. However, barring action in Ottawa, IATA has made it clear the cut-over date, which was delayed once, will not move again.
IATA determined in June 2004 that the organization would no longer process paper tickets for agents through its billing and settlement plan (BSP) after Dec. 31, 2007, citing as reasons billions of dollars in cost savings and a consumer preference for e-tickets. U.S. agencies are unaffected because they settle through ARC, which continues to support paper stock. Airlines also will have the paper option.
As of June 1, there will be some portion of services that are not electronically enabled. Seventeen carriers have advised IATA they can’t or won’t switch to e-tickets, and some programming or policy changes to accommodate things like infant tickets and group sales have not occurred.
In addition, certain multi-carrier trips will be impossible to book in a single record because not all existing interline agreements have been updated to accommodate e-ticketing, even between carriers accepting e-tickets.
Bryan Wilson, IATA e-ticket project director, said 3,300 of about 5,700 agreements were updated as of March, allowing e-ticketing for 81% of interline trips, but many agreements will never be updated. He said IATA expects more than 96% of agent tickets to be electronic by June 1, and that much of the remainder will never get implemented as electronic ticketing.
Based on the 434 million tickets processed by IATA last year, as many as 17 million tickets a year will no longer be accommodated in IATA’s settlement plan.
From the agents’ standpoint, removing paper tickets takes away tools they need to meet the needs of all customers and will create unnecessary inconvenience and higher costs for consumers.
In Canada, the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) and the Canadian Standard Travel Agent Registry (CSTAR) asked Canada’s Competition Bureau to investigate IATA’s plan, charging that IATA is abusing its power over agents. It argued that IATA’s moves put Canada’s agents at a competitive disadvantage given that airlines and U.S. agencies just across the border will still use paper as needed.
The filing also pointed to competitive issues facing small carriers that don’t have e-ticketing, noting that Harbour Airlines is pulling out of GDSs and agents will have to book services at Harbour’s Web site after June 1.
ACTA-CSTAR also petitioned for a delay in implementation of 100% e-ticketing while the bureau investigates.
Meanwhile, agent trade groups were rebuffed in a meeting with IATA officials in Geneva last week. They also asked for a delay until there are suitable electronic alternatives for all situations and described the issues that will face agents at the front line, said Mike Hatton, CEO of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents and chairman of World Travel Agents Associations Alliance.
IATA’s representatives said they were precluded from commenting on any point because of the ACTA-CSTAR filing in Canada, Hatton said.
Daryl Silver, president and general manager of Continental Travel Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said he knows IATA won’t budge because Komunik Datamark has stopped printing the tickets. The Winnipeg company has printed IATA stock in many parts of the world and is Silver’s client.
Silver has partnered with a fellow Ensemble agency in Chicago for issuance of some tickets in the U.S. The ticket prices won’t vary much, but there will be a higher consumer cost for currency exchange and ticket delivery. Other alternatives will be changing the mix of carriers to bypass those without e-ticketing or issuing separate tickets where interline pacts aren’t updated (an option that also often raises costs).
Silver’s $25 million agency uses paper on 1% or 2% of IATA tickets and it does a lot of direct booking with small airlines in northern Canada. Silver anticipates his agency will do even more direct bookings for airlines without e-tickets.
The ACTA-CSTAR papers cite more difficult examples. It said Carlson Wagonlit Mokami Travel in Goose Bay, Labrador, will be “devastated” by the IATA move. Ninety-three percent of its business is scheduled air, and 50% of that is on Air Labrador and Provincial Airlines, which currently settle through IATA but don’t accept e-tickets.
ACTA-CSTAR cited Travel Masters in Vancouver to illustrate the problem with group tickets. In February, the agency issued 150 paper tickets because British Airways still requires paper for group sales. ASTA-CSTAR said the agency will lose the ability to ticket many groups and/or complicated itineraries, and therefore expects to lose credibility and business.
IATA’s Wilson said groups of more than nine have to be split into smaller groups for ticketing, and that airlines have provided “system and procedural” support. However, Bruce Bishins, CSTAR president and CEO, said airlines have told Canadian agents they will issue debit memos if agents divide groups.