Air Transat expands its global travel agency payments to improve performance and reduce costs
29 / 04 / 2025
Air Transat, a Canadian leading travel brand, has tapped into Worldline’s expertise to better integrate its payments received via travel agencies worldwide. This builds on our decade-long relationship with Air Transat, under which we have the ability to process all online payments for them. This will give Air Transat greater visibility and control over the handling of travel agency payments, with improved payment performance and ultimately, lower transaction costs.
Complexity demands deep expertise
Handling payments made through travel agencies is a specialist task. It requires detailed knowledge and expertise to ensure high volumes of payments are processed in an efficient, accurate and timely way, through a complex global network which includes two clearing houses: the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP), for IATA-registered agents outside the United States, or the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) for agents in the United States.
Worldline is a payment service provider licensed to process such payments and has many years’ experience of handling travel agency payments for airlines around the world. Airlines also benefit from our global footprint and like-for-like settlement capabilities, ensuring they stay compliant with local payment rules and eliminate currency conversion fees.
“We have worked with Worldline over the past decade because of the value it brings our business. The team is proactive and prepared to identify and tackle what is necessary to achieve better payment performance and cost-efficiencies, as well as providing new levels of visibility and control.”
– Richard Bilodeau, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Treasurer, Transat
Focus on customer service and value
Founded in Montreal, Québec, in 1987, Air Transat carries more than 5 million passengers every year to nearly 60 international destinations in 27 countries, mainly in Europe, the Caribbean, the east coast of the United States, South America and North Africa.
Air Transat serves the highly competitive leisure travel market, with a focus on delivering excellent customer service. It was recently voted 2024 World’s Best Leisure Airline by passengers at the Skytrax World Airline Awards.
Results delivered
We were able to work on Air Transat’s agency payment system in the fall of 2024. Within weeks, we completed Phase 1 of the project, and had seamlessly onboarded ARC payment flows for the airline in the United States. Phase 2 involved a similar onboarding for BSP flows for 76 other markets around the world, completed in Q1 2025.
One of the immediate benefits of selecting Worldline to handle travel agency payment flows is the direct connectivity to the clearing house – which both mitigates Air Transat’s exposure to data impairment risks and reduces the interchange fees it pays on each transaction.
The more direct connection to ARC and BSP clearing, along with Worldline’s proven track record of handling agency payments, ensure the transaction data passed to issuing banks is accurate and comprehensive – leading to a lower risk profile for Air Transat.
Key benefits
- Higher acceptance rates
- Reduced transaction costs
- Additional currency support
Click here to find out more about our specialist payment solutions for the travel industry.