As we reported in last week's newsletter, the AGM in Vancouver was a decisive event for the future of the industry. This was not only true for electronic ticketing but for the rest of the projects as their overall vision and objectives were reviewed, validated and in some cases, expanded!

ET deadline extended - May 31, 2008

As of April 2007, ET global penetration reached 80% and 1,100 interline agreements had been established.

Whilst airlines forecast reaching 96.6% ET by December 2007, IATA management produced data that projected 92% as being more likely. Based on this data and the concerns expressed by a number of airlines, the Board and AGM decided to extend the deadline to 31 May 2008

This once off 5 month extension, which effectively gives the industry one year from the Vancouver AGM to meet the target. In particular, it will allow airlines behind schedule--due to late starts, system enhancements and regulatory limitations (e.g. Russia)--more time to complete their ET projects without jeopardising the efforts of airlines who were on target to reach 100% ET by year end.

This extension will allow enough time for all airlines to complete their project without jeopardising the efforts of airlines who were on target to reach 100% ET by year end.

In order to facilitate the completion of Interline ET agreements, airlines are asked to clearly communicate their intentions for future electronic relationships with their current interline partners.

The Board congratulated IATA for reaching 80% global ET penetration and for the support it has provided airlines to date.

The road ahead

IATA will continue to support all airlines to complete their ET projects through the various tools it currently provides: ET Buddy programme, the ET Match Maker, the General Business Requirements Generator (GBR), and Regional Workshops.

IATA will now also support those airlines wishing to minimise the leakage of paper tickets into their systems after 1 January 2008 and before the revised deadline.

Bar-Coded Boarding Passes (BCBP) - On track!

IATA e-freight - On track!

All 5 locations (Canada, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK ) are on track to pilot e-freight by year end. The Board looks forward to the results.

Common use self-service (CUSS) - On track!

The Board was pleased with CUSS progress--with 60 airports offering CUSS, the project is well on its way to reach the year end target of 70 CUSS implementations.

Self-service strategy - NEW!

Leveraging on the success of CUSS, the Board has supported the development of a comprehensive self-service strategy by year end to increase customer convenience at the airport through operational efficiencies in processes beyond check-in.

RFID - NEW!

With the delivery of the baggage business case and roll-out plan, the Board endorsed extending this work to a comprehensive baggage improvement programme (BIP) by year end. This programme should address causes of baggage mismanagement (i.e. covering process improvement as well as areas which RFID could impact).

These two new developments (Self-service strategy and Baggage improvement programme) will bring the Simplifying the Business programme up to a new level of customer service offerings and additional industry savings.

For more information on the above please visit IATA's pressroom. For current project status visit the StB Support Portal.

The StB Global Team