IATA Card Services: CardAXS

Reduce fee costs and simplify credit card settlement with a single agreement for settlement of all international credit card sales.

The Visa and MasterCard payment card schemes used to require that all airlines used the services of local settlement banks (known as credit card "acquirers"). As a result, airlines selling in many countries had to arrange agreements with one (and sometimes two) acquirers in every country where credit cards were accepted for payment.

Greater efficiency is possible through the central management and settlement of airline global credit card sales.

Both Visa and MasterCard have recognised the unique position of airlines as organisations that naturally sell in many countries, and now allow airlines to process and settle credit card sales through single "central acquiring" relationships.

So, now all airlines are able to re-negotiate credit card settlement fees based on total international business. In IATA's experience the change from multiple local contracts to single central contracts results in a 25% (on average) reduction in credit card settlement fees (known as Merchant Service Charge or Discount Rate).

The common problem is that most acquirers are only able to process and settle credit cards sales from their own country and in their own currency. To negotiate a central, international credit card settlement agreement airlines need to deal with a specialist "central" acquirer that is able to process and settle credit card sales in a multitude of currencies and from many countries.

To solve this problem IATA has formed a partnership with a central acquirer to provide the IATA CardAXS service.

By use of IATA CardAXS airlines can dramatically reduce their credit card fee cost, accelerate their cash flow and improve their customer service.

Importantly, airlines expanding international sales operations, through use of the e-commerce ticketing or by joining additional IATA BSPs, will find that IATA CardAXS solves many of the problems of expansion as it can be simply extended to handle any additional currencies of sale.

For further detail of the advantages of central card management, as available with IATA CardAXS, please visit the Card Services benefits page.

Limitation
Unfortunately, due to limitations on central acquiring, imposed by both Visa and MasterCard, IATA CardAXS is not able to process and settle credit card transactions from any countries in Central and South America.