Unilever Tests E-Ticketing On KLM

<I>Rotterdam, the Netherlands</I> - The Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever last week became the guinea pig for KLM's first foray into electronic ticketing. The pilot is being staged for Netherlands-based employees on all routes from Rotterdam to the United Kingdom.

Travelers are handed, faxed or e-mailed a printed itinerary plus a copy of the Warsaw Convention, which includes information on airline liability, and which most non-U.S. airlines need to publish because they do not accept unlimited liability in the event of accidents. Unilever also is giving travelers a questionnaire to monitor their reactions to e-ticketing.

Unlike the British Airways domestic e-ticket system, KLM is not issuing boarding cards through self-service checkin machines. Instead, passengers have to check in the standard way.

Nevertheless, Peter Bost, business services manager for Unilever, is convinced that the system will provide genuine benefits for airlines' corporate clients.

"At the moment, tickets have to be sent by courier or mailed to travelers," he said. "This is a great improvement in efficiency because we can simply fax or e-mail our travelers."

KLM is the second major airline to pilot international e-ticketing. Lufthansa introduced e-tickets on all routes from Germany to Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow last November. However, the only computer reservations system on which its e-tickets can be booked is Amadeus.

United Airlines was planning to introduce e-ticketing between the States and Europe on May 1, but has postponed it until later in the year. American Airlines also just announced that it will start e-ticketing between the United States and United Kingdom.

Unilever also is planning to get involved in electronic reservations. Bost said he was looking to 1998 to pilot Traxxer, the end-to-end automated system developed by KLM in conjunction with Galileo. Traxxer is in the early stages of testing with two other Dutch companies, Philips and Shell.