They were manufactured to be counterfeit-proof and as valuable as cash: the paper plane tickets. They were in use for decades until June 1, 2008, when the death knell came: with the global switch to e-tickets, the electronic version of the airline ticket.
In 2000, airlines, travel agencies and tour operators issued 295 million paper tickets. These were small booklets in landscape format, which, in addition to the pages for the individual flight sections, also listed the conditions of carriage in small print, which nobody wanted to read but had to carry with them.
Once the tickets had flown, they were not carelessly thrown away by holidaymakers, but kept and pasted into many a photo album. After all, at the end of a trip that you had saved up for a long time, what was left besides the memories? In addition to any souvenirs you might have bought, the only thing you held in your hands was the ticket you had flown.
“A plane ticket is like a mirror”
For the flight attendant Sebastian Schmitz, the old paper tickets are a “homage to the past,” as he said in an interview with the star reveals. He is particularly fascinated by the unique design. Even as a child he stood at the fence of Düsseldorf Airport and watched the planes take off and land.
Now he has in the British publishing house Astral Horizon Press the book “Tickets Please!” publish, which contains more than 150 of the most beautiful tickets. In doing so, he falls back on his collection and that of other people obsessed with flying, especially the collection of the Greek Athanasios Gclavaswhich owns more than 4000 copies from 192 countries.
“A plane ticket is like a mirror that reflects the holder’s hopes or fears,” writes Charles Kennedy in the foreword of “Tickets Please!” “Discovering a new city or a triumphant return home. A business opportunity, a personal journey of discovery, the joy of solitude or a new romance. Endless possibilities.”
On the photo gallery we show a small selection of ticket motifs from the new release.
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– There has been a threat of closure for years: photo homage to Berlin-Tegel Airport
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