The Peninsula Qatar Airways has reached agreements with 50 airlines around the world for interline electronic ticketing, enabling passengers to travel without a paper ticket to a wider choice of destinations, a release said yesterday.

With the recent additions of Lufthansa and British carrier bmi to Qatar Airways' growing list of interline e-ticketing partners, the airline will now be able to offer its customers a global network of destinations across all continents.

Qatar Airways began implementing electronic ticketing practices, where passengers travel paperless as their tickets are stored electronically in the airline's reservation system in December last year, then started interline electronic ticketing soon after.

An electronic ticket holds information previously held on a paper ticket. It requires a database, integrated with the airline's passenger service system which interfaces with all systems of partners and ground handlers.

Electronic ticketing was a mandate issued three years ago by the International Air Transport Organisation (IATA) at its annual meeting in Singapore that stipulated all airlines worldwide must go ticketless by the end of this year.

IATA recently extended the deadline to May 31, 2008.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akbar Al Baker said: "Qatar Airways is well on schedule to go ticketless on our entire network of 78 destinations worldwide by the end of 2007 despite the extended deadline.

"We just have a handful of outstations left in our network which will be e-ticket-compliant and will meet the original December 2007 deadline.

"In addition, we have been working side by side to ensure our interline partners come on board with the e-ticketing initiative. Reaching 50 airline partners for interline e-ticket agreements has been very quick since we started this process in January this year."

Electronic ticketing has significant benefits for passengers as it ensures easier handling of itinerary changes, especially for last-minute amendments; more effective use of Internet capabilities for booking travel and check-in; and more importantly, it eradicates issues of lost tickets as the travel document is stored in an airline's computer booking system.

The interlining system allows payment for the whole itinerary, regardless of the number of flights and airlines involved, in one transaction and one currency. It also expands consumers' choice giving them access to the widest range of carriers' schedules. It means passengers can fly complex routes around the world with more than one airline, said the release.