Airlines Have Plenty of Room for Growth When It Comes to Payment Acceptance, a

Airlines face myriad challenges when it comes to improving their payment processes to drive bookings and support growth, according to a report from omnichannel payments and digital-commerce platform provider CellPoint Digital.

The two leading payments challenges facing airlines are a lack of alternative payment methods and regional forms of payment, and not enough support to accept and convert transactions made with a foreign currency, according to the report. CellPoint polled 151 global airline professionals for its survey.

While 62% of respondents said they accept alternative payment methods, just 11% said they accept newer alternative payment methods such as open banking and account-to-account payments. Acceptance rates for more established alternative payments methods, such as digital wallets, are higher but still have a lot of room for growth. For example, 58% of respondents accept prepaid vouchers, 57% accept digital wallets, and 48% offer buy now, pay later.

The low acceptance rate for alternative payment methods overall “represents a significant challenge as the world’s consumers become more familiar with and eager to use alternative payment methods for all kinds of transactions, including travel purchases,” the report says. 

Recognizing that consumers increasingly expect to pay with a broader array of options, 30% of respondents say they plan to add BNPL as a payment option in the next six to 12 months. In addition, 26% plan to add online bank transfers, and 24% plan to add pay-by-link, during the same timeframe.

When it comes to accepting payments for booking a flight, leading challenges cited by airlines include complex payment processes (24%), the inability to transact in the customer’s preferred currency (23%), not enough flexible payment options (21%), and not enough payment methods to adequately serve all markets (20%).

When asked what aspects of their payment operations need the most improvement, 17% cited transaction acceptance costs, 15% said new features and functionality, 13% noted back-up systems in the event the main system becomes non-operational, and 13% cited the average cost per transaction. Other areas cited for improvement include conversion rates (12%), seamless payment processes (11%), response times (10%), and shopping-cart abandonment (9%)

Other payments issues for airlines include complex reconciliation processes (38%), lack of network choice (38%), lack of foreign-currency support, such as dynamic currency conversion and multi-currency processing (33%), inefficient procurement processes (27%), and the inability of newer payment technologies to communicate with legacy ticketing processes and systems (27%).