Creating a paperless world for airline tickets is proving to be a difficult task, but IATA is adamant that it will not waiver on its Dec. 31, 2007, deadline.

After that, IATA will refuse to issue paper tickets on its widely used Billing Settlement Plan system.

Airlines that fail to meet the deadline risk becoming disconnected in large part from the global airline network. Some major airlines already have stopped interlining with carriers that won’t give up paper, and more are likely to do so.

Yet IATA said more than half of the 339 airlines using BSP have yet to issue a single e-ticket.

As of May 1, 47.8% of BSP-issued tickets were e-tickets, far below IATA’s intermediate target of 70% penetration by the end of 2006.

“If you have not started [planning for e-tickets] yet, you have no time to lose,” IATA official Philippe Bruyere warned airline CEOs and other executives at IATA’s World Air Transport Summit and Annual General Meeting in Paris. “If you have already started, the challenge is to speed up.”

IATA also wants airlines to pick up speed on e-ticket interlining, which 75% of its members do not offer.

Bruyere is program director for IATA’s Simplifying the Business initiative. IATA, which established its e-ticket deadline in 2004, said eliminating paper tickets would save the world’s airlines $3 billion a year in paperwork and processing while making booking and travel easier for their customers. IATA says an e-ticket costs $1 to process vs. $10 for paper.