Skift Take
Care to buy a plane ticket without needing a credit card? Soon a few airlines will test enabling air travelers to pay for their tickets by taking payments directly from consumer accounts. Three cheers for testing innovations.
Some airlines will test letting ticket buyers on their websites have an optional new way of paying that avoids the need for credit and debit cards.
The world's top airline lobbying group, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has decided to launch a pilot helping consumers make purchases or airline tickets and other content via a payment platform run on the airline's direct websites.
Details remain vague. But the intent for the program directed at individual passengers appears not to be about getting travelers to bypass travel agencies. The new payment method instead appears like it will be piloted with customers who are comfortable making their bookings directly with an airline via website purchases, drawing directly from their bank accounts.
"We expect that this option will be available for testing by customers in real transactions with airlines participating in the pilot project by year-end," said Perry Flint, a spokesperson for IATA.
For airlines, direct payment could offer a cost-competitive solution by both avoiding the high fees of credit card-issuing banks. The move could also help to avoid the losses associated with occasi
