New York, Apr 08: Continental Airlines Inc. said on Wednesday it will eliminate paper tickets by the end of this year in an effort to cut costs, theft and paperwork.
The move includes tickets for international travel and those that involve other carriers. Continental said it has terminated 50 interline ticketing and baggage agreements with carriers that do not have electronic ticketing capabilities.
The company said it has considered moving to a paperless system for more than five years and decided to make the change when it realized that 95 percent of its domestic customers and 88 percent systemwide use electronic tickets.
Company spokesman David Messing did not have estimates on how much the company would save, though he said most savings would come in the "back office," where tickets are sorted, handled and saved. Records will now be kept as computer files, he said.
Customers will still be able to make reservations through travel agents or on the phone, as well as on the Internet, but they will not receive paper tickets. Instead, the reservations will be stored electronically.
Passengers who check in either via their computers at home or at airport kiosks will still receive the paper boarding passes that allow them to board planes.
Under the old system, passengers would exchange paper tickets for boarding passes.
Bureau Report
