Continental Airlines has announced that with the implementation of interline eTicket with Air Europa, it has completed interline eTicket capability with all of its alliance partners.The partners include all current and planned members of SkyTeam and planned SkyTeam associates, as well as all other codeshare and frequent flyer partners.

Continental expects to eliminate issuing and accepting paper tickets by the end of 2007 in accordance with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) mandate for 100 percent eTicket implementation worldwide by the end of the year. Continental is the IATA global industry leader in interline eTicket implementation, currently having interline eTicket capabilities with 77 carriers.

Interline eTickets permit customers to fly and check baggage on Continental and other carriers on a single paperless eTicket itinerary. Continental expects all of its travelers to soon be using convenient eTickets, which reduce loss, theft and paperwork hassles for customers and the airline. Currently, 98 percent of Continental’s customers system-wide travel on eTickets. eTickets are valid at all of the over 280 airports served by Continental around the world.

“The implementation of eTicket capabilities with all of our alliance partners is a significant milestone in our effort to achieve 100 percent eTicketing,” said Mark Erwin, senior vice president, Asia/Pacific and Corporate Development. “We will continue to work with our remaining interline partners and require them to adopt interline eTicket technology as soon as possible, to comply with the IATA mandate, as we lead the industry in this critical initiative.”
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