04 August 2025

Account-to-Account Payments in Airline Travel: Strategic but Slow—and Not the Silver Bullet

 

New Rails in payments? Yup - read on.

Financial fulfillment is always tricky. Fraud rates are rising and the emergence of (forgive me for mentioning it) crypto as acceptable forms, is causing and enabling new rails to emerge. So let's consider the use of A2A or really direct settlement. Not something that was previously reliable let alone legal. 

1. The Promise of A2A in Travel Payments

Account-to-Account (A2A) payments are being hailed as the next big leap in the evolution of digital commerce. Leveraging open banking infrastructure and real-time payment (RTP) rails, they offer three major promises:

  • Lower payment processing costs (by bypassing card networks)
  • Near-instant settlement and liquidity
  • Irrevocability, reducing chargeback risk

In industries like retail and utilities, that value is already being realized. In airline travel? Not so fast.

2. IATA Pay: The Misunderstood “Innovation”

IATA Pay is frequently cited as the aviation industry’s in-house response to payment modernization. But let’s call it what it is: an overengineered, underutilized solution.

Promised Benefits:

  • Eliminates card scheme fees
  • Provides real-time settlement
  • Integrated with BSP and IATA systems

Real-World Challenges:

  • Geographically limited: Active only in a handful of markets (e.g. UK, Germany, India)
  • UX is clunky: Redirect-heavy, confusing bank authentication
  • Integration burden: Airlines must build in logic for when and where it can apply
  • Customer adoption is negligible

Despite IATA’s marketing, most airlines report neutral-to-negative ROI, citing operational drag, hidden technical debt, and lack of merchant control. In contrast, broader open banking A2A models—like UPI in India or Pix in Brazil—offer scalable, embedded, and consumer-friendly alternatives.

Read: ACI Worldwide’s real-time payment market forecast

3. Global Models Worth Watching

If you want to see what successful A2A looks like, look outside the airline sandbox:

I have used it and it is VERY cool. 

  • Surpassed all card transactions in 2024
  • Now accounts for over 46% of e-commerce transactions in LATAM (PCMI)
Wero and EuroPA
  • Pan-European efforts to consolidate A2A rails

  • Built on SEPA Instant and mobile-first design

These are merchant - and consumer - driven systems, not centralized initiatives attempting to retrofit legacy infrastructure.

4. Why Airlines Should Still Explore A2A (But Carefully)

There are clear opportunities for airlines to test and benefit from A2A—just not in the blanket, one-size-fits-all way some might suggest.

Best-fit use cases today:

  • Domestic ancillary services (seat upgrades, bag fees)
  • B2B payments (corporate travel, wholesaler settlement)
  • Direct channels in markets with strong A2A rails

But beware of pushing A2A as a primary checkout method for cross-border tickets or first-time users—it still lacks the UX polish and fallback reliability of cards or digital wallets.

5. What’s Slowing Widespread Adoption?

Here are the real-world obstacles:

Barrier

Explanation

Further Reading

Irrevocability

No chargebacks mean high consumer risk unless fraud prevention is bulletproof

Eastnets on fraud prevention

UX Friction

Redirect loops, bank flows differ by country, poor conversion

Worldline on Open Banking UX

Fragmented Rails

No global RTP standard; each country builds in isolation

Stripe on A2A

Low Awareness

Most travelers don’t even know A2A is an option

CellPoint Digital Airline Payment Study

Operational Overhead

Each PSP, bank API, and market has unique requirements

Open Banking Implementation Entity

6. Strategic Recommendations for Airlines

If you’re an airline or OTA, here’s what to do:

Adopt orchestration platforms like CellPoint Digital, Adyen, or Checkout.com that can dynamically route payments across cards, A2A, wallets, and more.

  • Pilot A2A in markets where it’s native (India, Brazil, Netherlands).
  • Focus on UX—keep it simple, clear, and mobile-friendly. Brands like Nuvei and Worldline offer embedded flows worth studying.
  • Monitor fraud vectors closely; invest in AI-driven detection platforms like INFORM or Eastnets.
  • Educate your customer base before turning A2A into a default option.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Ignore A2A—But Don’t Get Distracted Either

There’s no question A2A is part of the future of payments. But in the context of airline travel, the rollout will be slow, complex, and uneven.

  • It won’t kill cards.
  • It won’t deliver universal savings.
  • And it definitely won’t fix bad checkout UX or fragmented payment operations.
  • Watch out for the regulations and the law. They have not quite caught up yet. 

But it does offer strategic leverage—especially in optimizing cash flow and reducing reliance on expensive intermediaries.

As one travel payment executive put it:
“The future isn’t cardless. It’s choice-rich.”

Further Resources and Brand Links


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