Oil costs may be overwhelming the air transport industry, but airlines are still looking to squeeze every dollar out of the non-fuel portion of their cost base.

With that in mind, the International Air Transport Assn. is pushing forward new initiatives that should yield several billion dollars in annual cost savings. In essence, the airline group wants to duplicate the $3-billion-per-year savings it achieved this year by eliminating paper tickets at the start of the month.

The move to electronic ticketing is by far the biggest single success to spring from IATA's Simplifying the Business effort, launched several years ago with a target of reducing annual airline spending $6.5 billion. At the time, fuel was around $40 per barrel, so those costs weighed far more heavily on airline balance sheets.

The cost-savings target for IATA's latest two cost reduction programs - improved baggage handling and fast track travel--haven't been set, but Philippe Bruyere, IATA's program director for Simplifying the Business suggests those should generate several billion dollars in savings as well. Lost or misplaced baggage alone costs the industry around $3.8 billion a year, with IATA hoping to at least slash that in half.

For baggage, the airline group plans to run trials this year with six airlines--four have been named already (Delta Air Lines, Emirates, LAN Chile and Lufthansa)--to figure out how to optimize such aspects as the handling processes, tracking and infrastructure. Next year, IATA plans to have "baggage go-teams" it can deploy to airlines to help them make improvements in processes.

The fast-travel effort is more far-reaching and is supposed to cover the entire trip, from checking, through baggage tagging, document scanning, self-boarding, flight rebooking (if required) and baggage recovery. A number of pilot programs with several different airlines are starting to help assess how best to reform current procedures. The goal is not just to save money, but also to help air transport deal with growing traffic and capacity bottlenecks.

Meanwhile, IATA this year also hopes to mark important progress on longer-running business simplification measures. Among those is e-freight, an effort to reduce paperwork and speed air cargo flows. Six countries started trials last year, with eight more to be added this year. Germany, South Korea and Mauritius have already declared their intent to participate, with other candidates ranging from the U.S., to Scandinavia, to Dubai and Australia, Bruyere says.

IATA also states that its effort to install non-airline-specific common-use self-service check-in kiosks is making progress. So far, 94 airports have been equipped with these units, with a target of 130 by year-end.