IATA Chooses Edenred to Develop Easypay System in Over 70 Countries

Following an international call for tenders, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has selected Edenred, a leader in transactional solutions, as one of its partners to develop and manage the new generation payment method IATA EasyPay for travel agents to issue airline tickets beginning later this year.

The payment method EasyPay is part of IATA’s new generation of IATA Settlement Systems (NewGen ISS), the evolution of the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP).

In place since 1971, the BSP facilitates and simplifies the selling, reporting and remitting procedures of IATA Accredited Passenger Sales Agents, and improves financial control and cash flow for IATA’s roughly 400 participating airlines. Through NewGen ISS, the BSP is evolving to better serve airlines and travel agents by optimizing cash flow management, strengthening the protection of funds and simplifying processes with new payment methods and a range of accreditation models.

As part of this modernization, IATA is introducing IATA EasyPay, a new electronic payment method for travel agencies, which will be exclusively managed by Edenred in more than 70 countries at the end of a progressive 3-year long deployment phase, serving more than 10,000 travel agencies that together account for approximately 40% of global transactions to be processed by IATA EasyPay1.

The new generation payment method will enable IATA-accredited travel agents to set-up and fund a dedicated prepaid eWallet, which can be used to pay for airline tickets through the BSP. Funds are secured at the time of ticket issuance in the GDS, then settled by Edenred from the travel agent eWallet to IATA’s BSP.

“IATA EasyPay will provide a simple and secure pay-as-you-go solution that will provide travel agents with more choice and flexibility.” said Aleks Popovich, IATA’s Senior VP, Financial and Distribution Services.

The payment method IATA EasyPay will be implemented by Edenred Corporate Payment, the Group’s new business line in charge of corporate payment solutions.