IATA Pay

IATA Pay is a new payment solution for direct ticket sales via airline websites that can also be utilize in other use cases (NDC, Agency Portal, Group Sales). It is based on instant bank transactions and leverages on open banking or Request-to-Pay schemes.

Yes, IATA Pay is live in Germany, UK, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Italy, India, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

IATA Pay will keep expanding to other geographies such as the Americas, MEA and Asia-Pacific markets, like Hong Kong and Thailand.

The intent is to go global making IATA Pay available in all markets in which instant payment, open banking and request to pay are accessible.

Currently, the currencies in scope are EUR (Europe), GBP (UK), as well as Indian Rupee (India).

Through 2022 and onwards, new markets outside of Europe will be onboarded to IATA Pay. For these markets the scope is local currencies.

Note that ICCS is compatible with IATA Pay when the service is available in the market.

Open banking and Request-to-Pay are emerging trends in the banking and payments sectors. These regulatory trends allow for new players to enter the payments landscape and create a payment method which is more direct between the merchant and consumer.

Request-to-Pay is a regulated scheme that allows for a payee to request a payment from a payor. In this context, the payor would only need to approve this payment request to initiate the payment. Request-to-Pay schemes usually cover instant transactions that are definite.

Open banking schemes provide a regulatory framework and/or rulebook for financial information messaging via standard APIs that can support new payment solutions based on Request-to-Pay transactions

Instant payments are also known as immediate payments, faster payments and real-time payments. Key features include:

Immediate availability of funds to the vendor.

Assured payment: once a payment has been made, the sender cannot deauthorize the transfer.

Confirmation of funds via real-time balance. Once a payment is authorized, the sender’s account balance reflects the deduction instantaneously.

Yes.  At the checkout page, IATA Pay will be presented together with any other payment option offered by the merchant (e-wallets, debit / credit cards, other bank transfer solutions, etc).

IATA Pay will be offered to merchants as a white-labelled solution, so in case of airlines, they will be able to decide on the branding.

First, IATA Pay is selected as the payment method by the customer at the checkout stage.

The airline will send the request to IATA Pay with an instant API communication. IATA Pay will use the payment and bank details to send a payment request to the customer’s bank account. The funds will be transferred directly and securely from the customer’s account to IATA’s bank account.

The next day, IATA will settle the funds to the airline’s account.

IATA Pay direct sales are independent from the BSP payment, although IATA Pay leverages on the BSP’s settlement infrastructure.

IATA Pay is a payment solution which mainly focus on airlines’/agents’ direct sales and will be settled separately from the BSP payments, although leveraging on the BSP’s settlement infrastructure.

IATA will reconcile the collected funds and settle them in a lump sum amount to the airline on the day following the transaction to a domestic bank account (Note: Bank accounts within SEPA area are considered domestic).

ICCS is compatible with IATA Pay when ICCS is available in the market, enabling the airline to repatriate their funds in their preferred currency.

This means that airlines could receive daily settlements which will include all the prior day’s transactions.

All interactions between airline and IATA Pay to initiate payment or refund will be via API communication, through the interface that has been built between both parties.

IATA pay charges will be invoiced along with the monthly IATA BSP invoice, for details on the charges you may refer to the BSP/CASS & AIRLINE CODING/MITA PRICE LIST.

All IATA invoices are available for download on the Simplified Invoicing and Settlement (SIS) platform.

The initial scope of IATA Pay is direct sales from the airline’s website that can also be utilize in other use cases (NDC, Agency Portal, Group Sales).  So, further options in the pipeline are expanding to other sales channels and to  travel agents.

Similarly to other financial services in IATA, your airline will be requested to provide contact information, instructions for settlement and a signed contract.

To activate the service, IATA Pay will be integrated to your check-out website like any other payment alternative.

For further information on contract conditions, kindly address your inquiries to iatapay@iata.org

IATA Pay can be integrated directly into your airline’s check-out page, either through your payment gateway provider or through a direct connection to your airline’s systems.

It is easy to connect to the IATA Pay interface. Check out the technical information for integration in the IATA Pay extranet. If you still don´t have access contact iatapay@iata.org and will guide you.

Note that IATA Pay is already integrated to IFG (IATA Financial Gateway) and IATA is in talks with the main providers in the market to integrate with them.

The IATA Pay team is ready to support you in your IATA Pay journey. Please contact iatapay@iata.org

Any airline employee could have a user in the IATA Pay extranet, usually stakeholders in payments and ecommerce departments.

There can be different user profiles with different levels of access and roles in the extranet. There will be a main user from the airline with administrative power and visibility of all other users, this main user will be able to add, remove and change authorizations to any of the other users.

Airlines will instruct IATA Pay to perform refunds as per their own internal policies. The instruction is sent through an interface (API) so that it is executed in real time.

Based on Airlines instructions, real-time refunds will be available to customers that made the original purchase using IATA Pay.

Yes, please contact iatapay@iata.org to share the appropriate documentation to guide your needs to familiarize yourself with IATA Pay functionalities.

IATA Pay and IFG are complementary to one another: IATA Pay is a new payment solution for the airline industry, while IFG is a payment orchestration service which optimizes airlines and travel suppliers’ different sales payment processes.

IATA Pay is already integrated with IFG.

These are two different payment solutions offered by IATA.

IATA Pay is a new payments solution based on instant bank transactions, IATA EasyPay is a “pay as you go” e-wallet solution for travel agents to issue tickets via the BSP.

From a user experience point of view, most instant payment methods may be very similar because they must comply with the same regulations. However, from an airline’s point of view IATA Pay has many differentiating factors. These include:

• Cost-recovery pricing model, up to 93% reduction in cost.
• A single industry solution covering all available markets as opposed to individual market solutions
• One single contract covering all markets available in IATA Pay
• 1-day settlement with the future potential for same-day settlement
• Airline is in control of the customers’ payment, which flows through IATA – a neutral party.

IATA will work with two types of financial partners: Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISP) and Cash management providers. Airlines aren’t affected in any way by this as they are only connected to IATA Pay. There is no contractual or technical integration required between airlines and IATA’s financial partners.

Note that PISPs will not be managing airlines’ funds but only exchanging the data required for payment initiation. This is the role of the cash management provider, which as per Industry Governance mandate needs to be among the top 10 financial entities globally.