IT solutions are being sought by airlines to fight the growing fuel crisis faced by the industry, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Speaking at the SITA Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, the IATA's chief executive and director general Giovanni Bisignani stated that IT could save airlines $6.5 billion (£3.2 billion) every year.

It is believed that with 100 per cent introduction of e-tickets $3 billion will be saved, with airlines reducing sales and distribution costs by 25 per cent.

"The imperative is to deliver more for less. And effective IT is essential," said Mr Bisignani.

He added that security issues will be tackled using IT solutions with the unrolling of the IATA's Simplifying Passenger Travel project aimed at making security more effective and efficient.

Furthermore, it was asserted that air traffic management and operations were streamlined by shortening 395 routes worldwide.

The IATA announced in February that paper tickets were to be phased out by June 1st.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)