"100% commitment to e-ticketing by the end of 2007" - an approved statement at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association(IATA). As per by IATA, e-ticketing will save the industry up to US$ 3.0 billion per year.
InterGlobe Technologies offers a hosted Electronic Ticketing implementation based on open technology system. It consists of an ET Server (ETS), having ET database and application loaded on it. This server can be linked to Airliner Existing System to make Airlines ET enabled and complies with the IATA 2007 Deadline.
ET server is placed on IGT's 24x7x365 Data Center and can be connected to Airlines existing system through dedicated secure link.
- The Airlines agents, using the dedicated terminals will be able to print (issue), display, update, void, exchange, and refund the E-tickets for the Airlines seats/Inventory. These E-tickets will be stored into an Electronic Ticket Server (ETS). This ETS first verifies the business logic i.e. agent ID, access rights, validity of E-ticket data and then process all the required verifications. The ETS then creates an Electronic Ticket Record (ETR) into its own database. Once the ETR is created on the system, it is available for:
- 13 months from the last date of intended travel for a wholly used ETR.
- 13 months from the first coupon travel date for a partially used ETR.
- 13 months from date of issue for a wholly unused ETR.
- The ETS is a fully secure and reliable system. On receipt of a request from the Airlines system, it verifies and authenticates the user. It then validates the data (PNR details) received from the Airline. After all kind of checks and verifications, it creates an ETR and sends a positive message along with the ticket number to the Airline system. The ETS maintains the serial control and automatically updates the status of the coupons. The coupon status can also be updated manually through the Airlines existing system.
- Agents/Supervisors can generate various reports for example Sales and Revenue report, E-passenger manifest, refunded E-ticket reports etc. The ETS provides all these reports on request sent by the Airline system.
- The E-tickets generated in the ETS can be sent to the customer or any other person through email. To send an ETR through email, agents need to mention the email ID of the customer in the entry.
"India's first low-cost carrier Air Deccan is probably the best example of E-ticketing. The carrier managed to save Rs. 80 crore s during the 2004-05 financial year." - Financial Express |