Air Europa and other companies will be among the first to implement a fair payment solution
Nium, the global platform for the Movement of Modern Money, today announced the launch of Nium Airline Payments (NAP), a payments solution powered by Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP). NAP provides airlines, travel agents and online travel agencies (OTAs) with a sustainable and equitable "closed loop" payment model, which closes the door on harmful surcharges and no-no policies. accepting businesses that have inflated the cost of B2B travel payments for decades. The technology for the solution comes to Nium through its acquisition of the leader in travel payment optimization, Ixaris, in 2021.
Among the first to contract this solution to Nium is Air Europa, which has turned to the global payments company to address some of the inequities associated with traditional card payment models. Today, traditional card payments offer travel agents and OTAs financial incentives that hit airlines' thin margins.
The closed-loop solution Nium Airline Payments removes margin-eating intermediaries from the payments flow, giving airlines the flexibility and control to design transparent incentives for OTA partners, based on routes, seasonality, business volumes, etc.
All this means that Air Europa can finally benefit from significantly reduced cost savings per payment, faster settlement times and flexible incentives for sellers, all without requiring any additional technical integration.
"Without payments, there can be no sales and we are very honored to help Air Europa solve what has been one of the biggest conundrums of airline distribution in the Internet age: do I increase my distribution at the cost of accepting high pay rates, or do I limit distribution to partners who offer better payment terms, but reduce overall sales opportunities?" said Spencer Hanlon, Nium's Director of Travel.
"We have been very inspired by Nium's innovative approach to creating an alternative payment method, and are proud to offer it to our B2B partners," added Yago Casasnovas Head of Payment, Fraud Prevention and Distribution at Air Europa. "We are communicating the availability of this new option to our travel agencies, tour operators and TMC customers and we hope that they will join us soon in taking advantage of its use."
Today's news is just the latest development in the evolution of Nium's range of B2B payment solutions for the entire travel industry - including not only airlines, but also hotels, travel agencies and others-, which offers virtual credit cards (VCC), real-time "pay-in, pay-out" in more than 100 currencies to more than 190 countries and, more recently, cryptographic solutions.