Sky is the limit for global ticket firms

Beijing's decision to break the monopoly of state-controlled TravelSky Technology in online air ticket sales has put foreign players in a dogfight for the robust and thriving market.

Before the change on October 1, TravelSky, which is owned by the big four state-backed airlines - China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China and Hainan Airlines - was the only computerised reservation system for flight bookings and ticketing on the mainland. It generated 2 billion yuan (HK$2.45 billion) in sales a year.

TravelSky is one of the highly regulated businesses that Beijing has promised to open up since it joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001.

After more than a decade of waiting, foreign travel companies, including European-based Amadeus, United States-based Galileo and Abacus, which is owned by Cathay Pacific Airways, Dragonair and Singapore Airlines, will get a foothold in the second-largest air traffic nation in the world.

These companies have so far been allowed to process only the bookings for overseas carriers, which account for just 4 to 5 per cent of total bookings. About 318.6 million reservations were made on domestic and international airlines on the mainland last year.

"It's a very exciting moment for us," said Winnie Lau, general manager at Abacus Distribution Systems (Hong Kong).