Galileo is urging suppliers and subscribers to focus on e-ticketing to meet the extended IATA e-ticketing deadline of May 31, 2008.

As a leading global distribution system (GDS) and subsidiary of Travelport, Galileo is highly committed to e-ticketing and is concerned that an extension to the deadline will result in a slowdown in e-ticketing plans in the Middle East & Africa, the company said in a statement.

“Even though the deadline has been postponed, Galileo continues to focus on plans which were already in place to meet the original December 2007 deadline for e-ticketing,” the company said.

Global e-ticket penetration is now around 82 per cent, but that figure is just 47 per cent in the Middle East & Africa. The IATA target is 96.5 per cent.

“We are supporting Galileo’s commitment to e-ticketing in the Middle East & Africa and, indeed, across the globe. In fact, three out of every four tickets issued on a Galileo system are now electronic. We were the first company to bring e-ticketing into Pakistan. We have currently 67 airlines within the region which are e-ticket enabled, and our agents can now transmit ticket information directly to the databases of key airlines in the region,” said EmQuest Senior Vice-President Naz Nizari.

EmQuest is the national distribution company for Galileo in the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

“The benefits of e-ticketing are indisputable.  They reduce costs by eliminating the need for printing and posting paper documents; the paperless approach has a huge global environmental impact, saving acres of forests worldwide. All parties benefit from e-tickets, they save time and are more efficient for the customer, the agent and the airline. What’s more, e-tickets are far safer and more secure than printed tickets. They are much harder to counterfeit. Also, as they are not posted, the tickets can no longer get lost in the post or be sent to the wrong address,” said Galileo’s vice-president for the Middle East and Africa Rabih Saab.

Galileo’s e-ticketing solution for agents and airlines, (that operate in non-billing and settlement plan (BSP) markets), allows agents to request e-tickets to be issued in the airline’s system, once these requests are authorised by the airline. This allows all parties to work more efficiently by eliminating manual entries, the company said.

 “We firmly believe that the e-ticketing product can facilitate business growth for agents. Our Viewtrip product enables passengers to view their itinerary and print their e-ticketing receipts instantly and an extensive reporting feature helps agents to tally their manual work with the actual issuing of the tickets.” Nizari said.

Galileo currently has 170 active e-ticket participants in 93 countries. As a direct result of e-ticketing, Galileo helping to save a minimum of 14 acres of forest per month. – TradeArabia News Service