Air Allies Advance Int'l E-Ticket Interlining
SkyTeam partners Air France and Delta Air Lines today began offering interlined electronic tickets through direct sales channels, providing ticketing flexibility for passengers on itineraries involving both carriers. Earlier this week, the Oneworld alliance laid out plans for rapid adoption of e-ticket interlining among member carriers.
Delta and Air France said the new functionality in the coming weeks will be extended to the travel agency community through global distribution systems. The two carriers throughout 2004 also plan to develop interline e-ticket links with other SkyTeam partners.
Delta's goal is to reach 100 percent e-ticket usage by year-end, driven by interline agreements. The carrier, which said e-ticket penetration already has reached 92 percent of worldwide customers, currently links e-ticket databases with Alaska, American, Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways.
Most of the major U.S. carriers interline e-tickets with one another, leaving international links as the remaining gaps. Global airlines, however, slowly have established such cooperation. The Oneworld alliance said six new bilateral links between members will be activated in the coming weeks, giving the partnership an inside track in becoming "the first global alliance to offer this customer convenience between all of its members."
The newest Oneworld interline agreements will link Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia to American Airlines and British Airways with Aer Lingus, Finnair and Qantas. The alliance's first interline agreement--which also represented the first such transoceanic link--was formed in May 2002 between AA and Finnair. AA also links e-tickets with Oneworld partners Cathay Pacific, LanChile and Qantas, in addition to several North American carriers.
Aside from the inherent airline benefits of e-ticket interlining--the elimination of costly paper processing--passengers can take advantage of e-tickets for multi-carrier itineraries, use self-service kiosks for more trips, more easily make changes to travel plans and quickly obtain reaccommodation in the event of canceled flights.