Not so long ago an airline ticket was a valuable document, almost as valuable as a banknote. Then the Low Cost Carriers came in and said: “We can do without that, just payment information in the reservation will do and it saves us a lot of money”. Thus Ticketless was born.

IATA recognised the cost side, but also recognized that passengers with that value document went from airline to airline. The conclusion: “Let us introduce an electronic version of the paper ticket, the E-Ticket.”

Most IATA airlines have by now introduced E-Ticketing and are in the process of enhancing their partnerships by implementing Interline E-Ticketing.

In the press and even in IATA publications the E-Ticketing process is also sometimes refered to as ticketless. And thus confusion blossoms. Is Ticketless the same as ticketless? Absolutely not.

You need a solid understanding of the concepts and the procedures behind them to make a informed choice for your airline, based on your business model. The article Distribution finds flexibility and functionality in Low Fare & Regional Airlines of November 2008 (volume 25, nbr 8, pp 30-33) gives some general considerations. If you want to discuss what is best for your airline don't hesitate to contact us. It is without obligation.

SAS Global Forum 2011 takes place early April in Las Vegas.

The contribution of Synchrona consists of two presentations in the Coder's Corner session:
- Custom sequence of rows and columns in PROC TABULATE
- Handling e-mail attachments, including decoding of BASE64 encoded attachments.

Return later to view or download the papers and presentations

Erik Tilanus is also session co-chair of the session Programming - beyond the basics.

White paper on the selection of an airline reservations system

Synchrona wrote a "white paper" about the selection of a new airline reservations system.

Today there are so many choices and so many different airline business models, that choosing a cost-effective and functionally rich reservation system is a complex process. This white paper gives suggestions for the preparation of a Request for Proposal and for the evaluation of the responses.

You can request your copy by email on the contact page