Bangkok--28 Jun--Total Quality Etihad Airways, The National Airline of the United Arab Emirates, which operates highly popular twice daily flights from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi and onwards to 43 destinations around the globe, is to introduce a surcharge on paper travel tickets from 28 June in a bid to match global aviation standards, reduce airport waiting times and cut costs. The Abu Dhabi based airline will set a minimum add on charge of US$25 for its customers who insist on travelling with paper tickets at airports where e-ticketing is available. Geert Boven, Etihad’s executive vice president sales and services, said: “Etihad’s drive to have our customers use electronic tickets is a move towards stress free travel. There are no tickets to lose and there’s no need for last minute queues for tickets on departure.” Switching from the old fashioned paper ticket to electronic ticketing is set to save the aviation industry US$3 billion annually, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Currently IATA processes 300 million paper tickets a year. The cost to process an electronic ticket is US$1 whereas a paper ticket costs ten times as much to administer. Electronic tickets give air travellers a flight itinerary which contains a file confirmation number. The passenger presents the itinerary and number at the airport check-in counter and gets an aircraft boarding pass. Notes to editors: Paper ticket surcharge summary The paper ticket surcharge for the following destinations is US$25 (unless stated): Amman, Bahrain, Bangkok (US$62), Beirut, Brussels (US$27), Casablanca, Cairo, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Dublin (US$34), Frankfurt, Geneva, Islamabad, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, Karachi, Kuwait City, London (US$50), Lahore, Mumbai, Manila (US$50), Manchester (US$50), Munich, Muscat, New York, Paris, Riyadh, Toronto E-ticketing is currently not available in: Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Tehran, Peshewar, Colombo, Khartoum and Damascus. About Etihad Airways Etihad Airways is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates based in the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi. Currently Etihad offers flights to 43 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. For further details: Etihad Airways Corporate Communications: Tel: 02 253 0099 or visit www.etihadairways.com For more information as well as pictures, please contact: Tom Van Blarcom / Ruthaiwan Tanwongwan Total Quality PR (Thailand) Co., Ltd Tel. 02 260 5820 Fax 02 260 5847 — 8 E-mail : [email protected] Click for photo release at www.thaipr.net