The China Air Transport Association (CATA) stopped providing paper flight tickets on Monday.

CATA, in cooperation with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), was working to popularize electronic air tickets in China by the end of this year, a CATA spokesperson said.

Airlines and agencies can provide both paper tickets and electronic tickets at the moment. Sources with Yoee.com, an air travel website, said its stock of paper tickets would be sold out in a month.

"E-ticketing is convenient and can save time for passengers because passengers can make reservations on line or by phone and check in with a ticket number," said Wang Yili, marketing head of Yoee.com.

E-ticketing will also reduce the operational costs of the airlines, making price cuts possible.

The cost of an e-ticket was about a tenth of that of a paper air ticket, according to the IATA, which required its 261 member airlines to abandon all paper tickets by the end of 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2006)