The world's two largest carriers, American Airlines and United Airlines, this month launched electronic ticket interlining, allowing customers to use a single e-ticket for itineraries including segments on both airlines. The most comprehensive bilateral interline link to date, it was followed last week by a similar agreement between American and Continental airlines.
"We have been looking for this for a long time," said United president Rono Dutta. "We wanted to do this about a year and a half ago, but then American had their whole TWA issue, and there were other issues. But this is great news for the traveling public."
United also interlines e-tickets with Continental, Northwest Airlines and Star Alliance partner Air Canada. "We want to be global with this and at 100 percent e-ticketing, but American certainly was the biggest fish to hook," Dutta said.
The same is true for American, which lost its first e-ticket interline link late in 1999 when partner Canadian Airlines was absorbed by Air Canada. American officials were not available to comment.
Other links in the industry connect Continental with both Northwest and America West Airlines. Delta Air Lines, which currently has no e-ticket interline links, also was unavailable for comment, though officials in December hinted that bilateral cooperation with other carriers would be finalized throughout the year.
Interlining is seen as a final hurdle to nearly ubiquitous e-ticket usage. It links the airlines' respective e-ticket databases and facilitates passenger rebooking when necessary. United said 73 percent of all U.S. customers already choose e-tickets. American marked its penetration at 65 percent. Both carriers offer e-tickets to every worldwide destination.
Continental said its domestic e-ticket usage exceeds 70 percent. Northwest earlier this month said e-tickets represent 78 percent of domestic enplanements and 25 percent international, resulting in an overall global penetration of 68 percent. Those numbers could rise further after the carrier interlines e-ticketing with American, expected next month, and with Delta and Alaska Airlines by year-end.
"Most importantly, e-ticket interlining eliminates that last obstacle that customers raise about auto-rerouting in the case of a cancellation," said Al Lenza, Northwest vice president of distribution planning. As an example, he pointed to contingency plans developed for a possible United Airlines mechanics strike—since averted—that "would have saved people the need to print the coupons."
The Airlines Reporting Corp. said travel agency-issued e-tickets in February accounted for 61.7 percent of total transactions.
Though e-ticket interline links do not yet exist between any U.S. carriers and their overseas counterparts, e-tickets obviously are popular among foreign carriers seeking to uncover cost-saving opportunities. For example, Lufthansa German Airlines, as part of a larger restructuring of travel agency compensation, has established a flat payment for e-ticket bookings. British Airways, meanwhile, slapped a $14 surcharge on paper tickets for itineraries that have an e-ticket alternative. The move, similar to policy changes last year at some U.S. carriers, levies the fees only on tickets purchased directly from the carrier.
At present, only 35 percent of the seats BA sells are issued as e-tickets. "The adoption rates among our corporate clients varies from 95 percent down to 2 percent," said Tiffany Hall, BA general manager of sales in the United Kingdom and Ireland. "We need to do a better communications job on e-tickets."
Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association continues to search for airline customers for its Hubware e-ticket interlining project now in development with SITA. The system will provide critical messaging, enabling carriers to make bilateral links work, but thus far a lack of resources has prevented carriers from signing on.
"We are ready and the solution is ready, but since Sept. 11, there has not been a lot of resources available to the airlines," said Gerry Obara, IATA manager of reservations and e-commerce. "Interlining e-tickets under any scenario is a significant investment and people are surprised at how difficult it is to align e-tickets, even though there is a clear goal in mind."
~Additional reporting by Amon Cohen