The IATA Board of Governors met in Montreal on December 7th, 2007 during which the achievements of the Simplifying the Business projects of meeting all set targets were shared and 2008 targets for the industry were set.

Electronic ticketing - ET

In Nov 07, ET's accounted for over 90% of the airline tickets issued through IATA BSPs. Pleased with this progress, the Board reaffirmed the deadline of end of May 2008 for 100% ET. Until that critical date arrives, IATA will keep supporting airlines to reach the highest level of ET penetration by end of May 2008. The aim is to help them achieve a smooth transition to a BSP world without paper tickets on 1 June.

IATA carried out a full survey of airlines in October to gauge industry readiness and inform the Board. An overwhelming majority of airlines feel confident about the transition to 100% ET and collectively forecast reaching 97.7% ET and over 4000 Interline ET agreements in May 2008. Find out more about the results here.

Bar coded boarding passes - BCBP

Having exceed the set target of 80 BCBP capable airlines in October and having reached 94 airlines in Dec 2007, the project is on track to meet the 2008 mandate of 100% BCBP airline capability.

IATA e-freight

IATA e-freight also exceeded the set target by launching six pilots in Nov 5, 2005 instead of the five the Board had asked for. Pleased with the results, the Board asked IATA to add 8 locations to the existing 6 by end of 2008.

Want to know exactly how an e-freight shipment is carried out? View a video created by KLM / AF celebrating their first e-freight shipment.

Common use self-service - CUSS

The 2007 target of 70 airports was met in July. This success of the current 84 live locations is the basis for the Board's request for a total of 130 live airports by end of 2008.

Airlines' progress

To view your airline's progress for each one of the above projects, download the latest CEO report available in the StB Extranet.

New StB projects: The new generation

At the June 2007 AGM, IATA was asked by its Board of Governors to investigate two new projects to keep bringing improved customer service to passengers and reduced costs to industry stakeholders. The December 2007 Board meeting confirmed their viability and mandated IATA to drive the following two projects:

The Baggage management Improvement Programme aims to ensure the passenger is reunited with their baggage at final destination by improving baggage processes to reduce baggage mishandling. IATA will provide an industry methodology to reduce baggage mishandling through a solutions toolkit, workshops and an internet tool to facilitate cooperation among industry stakeholders. In 2008, IATA will secure the participation of 6 airlines and airports in the programme.

The Passenger Self-Service Programme will enable passengers to control all appropriate aspects of the departure and arrival processes through a wide range of self-service options. IATA will launch a series of projects covering each of the following areas: Check-in, Baggage processing, Documentation checks, Boarding and Post-Flight. The Board asked IATA to conduct 2 pilots for each one of the projects mentioned before end of 2008.

In order to facilitate the understanding of these two new exciting projects, we have created two online tutorials detailing the issues, benefits and what are the next steps. Select a tutorial below:

The StB Global Team