Paperless Airplanes: Printed tickets now dead
Ian Austen, writing in The New York Times earlier in the week, had an article entitled “Extinction Is at Hand for Paper Airline Tickets.” The article was about how paper tickets for plane travel are now practically extinct due to the introduction of electronic tickets. As Austen writes, “Replacing paper tickets, and the elaborate global system that processed them, with electronic ticketing will save airlines $3 billion annually on the roughly 400 million tickets sold outside of the United States alone.” So while this makes economic sense, for passengers it also makes their lives easier (tickets being one less thing to forget to pack).
I also think this development has some relevance in terms of the “print is dead” debate. Because, while airplane tickets aren’t narrative (although a one-way ticket certainly tells a different story than a roundtrip), the reduction of yet another piece of paper in our lives shows that deeply ingrained habits and customs can (and do) change. When people say “print is dead” they’re referring words printed on paper, but the statement could also signify anything written by hand. And the increase of computer technology and electronic communication has led to a direct (and significant) decrease of various forms or instances of printing and handwriting.
In fact, in numerous aspects of daily living, paper is getting more and more scarce. I see this often in my own life. For instance, I haven’t written a check in years. Instead, I do all of my banking online. And I now receive my statements online, and I also no longer receive paychecks (opting for direct deposit). I rarely even carry money anymore because I’d rather just use a credit or debit card for pretty much everything. Paper used to be at heart of all financial transactions, and yet nowadays it has practically disappeared.
So where we were, just ten years ago, covered in paper like Robert DeNiro at the end of Brazil, we’re all becoming increasingly digital, with e-mail signatures replacing the real thing and virtual greeting cards usurping paper ones. And so, while the “paperless office” that was predicted a few decades ago hasn’t yet come to pass, in 2007 we have less interaction with paper than we’ve had since it came into widespread circulation a few hundred years ago. Airline tickets are the latest bit of print to disappear, and many more examples will follow.
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of more direct relevance to books per se
is the disappearance over the years of
our hard-copy _computer_user_manuals_…
it’s for the same reason as plane-tickets,
i.e., it saves money for the corporations.
as soon as the publishing industry finds
they can make more money off of e-books,
they will abandon paper-books so quickly
it will positively make your head spin…
they _pretend_ it’s all about the customer.
but we really know it’s all about the money.
-bowerbird
I can’t remember the last time I used a paper ticket for flying! You’re right, this is another sign that companies are starting to figure out that going “paperless” is a great move financially and it’s even good for the environment.
I’m not holding my breath for the large publishing houses however. They are notoriously stubborn in dealing with any kind of change. Maybe in another two decades they’ll realize their mistake in not adopting this technology earlier.
Great post!
There is a difference between being dead and being a zombie. I can’t recall the last time I needed a paper ticket to use my bicycle.
True, but you can’t use your bicycle to get to Hawaii.
everything will be digital in the coming decades… great post
Like your blog big time. We are in the forefront of making all things mobile and paperless and will ehibit on the Passenger Terminal Expo in Amsterdam. We make equipment to scan paperless mobile tickets but see in practice that there is a big legacy in legislation. All countries in Europe demand officielly print tickets for tax and/or accounting reasons, there you go with that paperless concept we thought that would have the future. Same applies for the Airline industry. But as good entrepeneurs we now evolved our mobile ticket scan equipment into selfservice solutions to convert print at home- and mobile tickets into….. official printed tickets. Print is dead… long live the printed ticket
Pleas go on with blogging your critical view, we will end up there eventually.
O yeah, a nice vid from mobile ticketing in public transport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3vqPYURbc
In this case there was no printed ticket needed so this is 100% paperless and thousends of tickets further.
Cheers, Ron