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• Domestic and short-haul travel moves from air to rail: experts comment on the challenges and opportunities

  With France introducing domestic flight bans where there’s a rail alternative, and major European airlines like Air France, KLM and Lufthansa supporting the shift, what does this mean for the wider travel industry?  How can travel sellers and B2B distributors support and tap into this important climate initiative?  We speak to experts from across the travel value chain to find out.   There’s a business opportunity for airlines in the rail boom says Alice Ferrari, from aviation technology provider Kyte: “The shift to rail doesn’t mean airlines need to lose out,” she tells us.  “Airlines like KLM have already figured out that there’s a business opportunity for forward-thinking carriers.  Airlines should look at intermodality – offering multiple forms of transport for the traveller’s total journey – offering people public transport options for part or all of their routes.  Airlines should also look to partner with the rail companies, to buy and sell rail seats, and simply consider this another ancillary revenue. As intermodal transport becomes increasingly important for consumers, travel companies, including airlines and rail carriers need to be equipped for plug and play with multiple travel apps and itinerary planning tools”   However, there are several practical barriers in the shift to rail.  Spencer Hanlon from global real-time payments platform Nium comments that “many booking systems and third parties are not properly set up to manage the B2B payment with rail providers automatically, or even at all.  Add the complexity of rail ticket booking, many different providers and schedules, not to mention the potential for cancelations or rebookings, and the industry may not be ready to take rail bookings en masse right now – we need to work together to solve these challenges fast to tap into the growing demand for rail.”    Emilie Dumont, Managing Director at Digitrips, the owner of leading French multi-product travel platform MisterFly, sees rail continuing to gain over air on short-haul routes: “I truly believe that rail is and will continue to develop as an alternative to air for any route that can be covered in less than four hours by train.  The improvement of high-speed trains will also help in the coming years.  Train is convenient – stations are inside cities, there are no security queues, and travellers can arrive at the station as little as ten minutes before departure, enjoying comfort and wifi when onboard.  The main issue I see is carbon calculations – the methodology used is a little behind air… However, I see this improving.  We also plan to enhance our rail offering in 2024, providing our B2B clients with train-inclusive travel solutions.”   As a final thought, Andres Fabris of Traxo, the world’s only provider of real-time corporate travel data capture, identifies a significant obstacle stemming from the process of reserving train tickets. Fabris observes, "The complicated nature of rail bookings, combined with insufficient options in standard corporate booking systems or via Travel Management Companies (TMCs), leads many business travelers to bypass official booking channels. This challenge not only creates a visibility gap for travel managers responsible for duty of care, but also discourages the promotion of rail travel—despite its substantial benefits for reducing the company's carbon footprint. Capture technology like ours, capable of capturing rail bookings regardless of where they are booked, becomes crucial for motivating corporations to embrace train travel."

  Moden air travel is a marvel of coordination.   An international dance of crew, machinery, logistics, and infrastructure combine to help humans defy gravity. So why have the industry’s payment systems remained so stubbornly earthbound?   The air travel ecosystem requires managing complex payment flows involving many different parties, including travelers, tourism suppliers, and third-party vendors worldwide. Existing processes often lead to high operational costs, errors, and cash flow issues — many of which fall on online travel agencies (OTAs).   OTAs face the fundamental problem of providing services on a global scale that require locally-tailored compliance and integration to ensure acceptance and manage overhead. However, they also bear a disproportionate amount of the risk.   Fintech will transform the way money moves through the air travel ecosystem. Virtual cards give OTAs more control, transparency, and insight into payment processes, reducing unnecessary fees, and maximizing acceptance rates to deliver a consistent, efficient customer experience.   This definitive ebook from Nium takes a deep and timely examination of global OTA payments and virtual card strategies agencies can employ to minimize their risk exposure.   You will learn:  

• How payments shape success in the OTA ecosystem
• The regional trends driving change and performance for OTAs
• Why new payment systems can drive competitive advantage

  Download the Nium ebook here: How Virtual Cards Create an Air Travel Payments Revolution (nium.com)

 

• High interest rates – set to increase further according to experts – are hitting travel companies hard as too many depend on credit to fund delays in getting paid. 
• But travel companies should no longer have to wait 60 days (or more!) for payments – the technology is there to resolve this problem.
• Real-time global payments expert Nium offers five recommendations for travel businesses on how to get paid quicker.

  With global interest rates hitting historical highs – currently at 5.25% in the UK following an increase recently and 5.25% in the US – and economists anticipating further increases, many businesses across the whole of the travel spectrum are finding it harder to meet their debt commitments or raise further cash.   However, it is often overlooked that one of the main credit needs for travel businesses, particularly hotels and airlines, is to fund the delay between the provision of services and receiving payment for them.   Whilst this may have been manageable in a low-interest rate environment, this can no longer be sustainable. Not least as many travel businesses are still paying higher than average interest rates for their credit, due to the poor credit records they gained during the global pandemic.   Spencer Hanlon – from real-time global payments leader Nium  – comments: “We frequently see travel businesses waiting 60 days, and more, to get paid. At the same time, we see people funding that gap using credit cards, easily paying 12% or more in annual interest rates. That means they’re losing 2%, and more of the value of their services, in just waiting to get paid!   “If your bank put transaction fees up by 2% per transaction, you’d be angry, and rightly so. And with the current uncertain economic outlook, it is quite possible that even higher levels of interest rates are coming.   “What’s the answer to this problem? Essentially getting paid more quickly as slow collection affects the bottom line.   “But why are so many travel companies so slow in collecting payments? Far too many travel businesses are still using 1970s era legacy systems to collect payments, often arriving via old fashioned physical credit card payments or traditional bank transfers.   “In this day and age, there is simply no justification for this. The secret to faster collection ultimately lies with a mixture of automated processes and the use of virtual credit card payments, or ‘VCCs’. This combination can significantly reduce costs and improve productivity by automating booking reconciliation and providing greater protection against failed and non-refundable supplier payments.”   Nium recommends that companies take the following actions to get paid more quickly:  

1. Have complete visibility of all transactions: reconciliations shouldn’t be time consuming.
2. Speed up your processes: no more twice weekly payment schedules, those days are gone.
3. Ensure everything is easily controllable: you need to be able to specify precisely the currency of use, where the transactions can occur, and control the dates on which transactions can be executed.
4. Adopt modern fintech payment methods that are both instant and low in cost, most probably in the form of virtual credit cards (but other options exist).
5. In short: automate all financial payments processes or you´ll forever be at the mercy of volatility of all kinds, be that interest rates, inflation, or booking cycles.

 

• Spencer Hanlon from Nium stresses that too many travel companies only receive global payments long after they’ve already delivered services or laid out for costs.

  This year’s more than welcome record summer for travel bookings brings with it the unwelcome need to increase working capital, warns Spencer Hanlon from global real-time payments platform Nium, which provides services to online travel agencies, hotels, and airlines around the world.   He points out that “without increasing working capital, a company could potentially be wiped out this summer despite an abundance of willing clients. That’s because, sadly, too many travel companies don’t get paid until long after providing the service or laying out money in advance.   “Most have to fund this gap with credit, which is not always easy to access quickly when facing a sudden booking windfall. This is predicted to happen this year, with levels of bookings broadly returning to 2019 levels and even higher in some cases according to the UNWTO.   “Meanwhile, the delay between providing services and getting paid could be exacerbated by back-office finance teams across the travel chain being overwhelmed by the increased level of bookings.    Spencer believes that this problem will be further aggravated by the fact that such teams were cut heavily during the pandemic and have not yet returned to full capacity. This is in part due to the global labour shortage, but also because priority is often placed on recruiting front-office staff.   To overcome these challenges, Nium recommends that travel companies who feel they might be vulnerable to this consider taking the following actions immediately:  

• Firstly, understand what credit options are available to you so you can act swiftly should you need it. Start that conversation with your bank or other potential sources of credit sooner rather than later, making sure to explain and prove the high volume of bookings you have taken on or anticipate.

 

• Secondly, communicate proactively with your partners to make sure they understand why you need prompt payments; they may not know the strain such high volumes are placing on you.Ask yourself if it might be reasonable to introduce payment terms more favourable to yourself, such as asking to be paid on specific dates.

 

• And thirdly, try to avoid old-fashioned bank transfers when making or receiving cross-border payments, especially if they are of high volume and low value. This payment method is not only expensive, but it can be very slow and add needless back-office admin time, increasing your working capital needs.Instead, ensure you’re capitalising on real-time payments infrastructure to speed up payments, reduce costs, and give you greater control and visibility on where your money is at any time. Are you receiving money in the right currency and in the digital wallet, bank account, or credit card of your choice? If not, find the right provider who can handle all of this.

  Summarising, Spencer states: “If you follow these steps, everyone will thank you and your creditors might be more open to increasing credit, as they would more easily understand your financial situation. Of course, there will likely always be some gap between providing a service and getting paid. But if you don’t do your best to shorten this period, then at best you’re reducing your profitability and at worst leaving yourself open to the risk that your busiest summer could, rather ironically, be your last.”

Spencer Hanlon, from real-time global payments firm, Nium, warns travel companies not to let the high season spike in overseas staff turn into an expensive headache   With the high season coming, travel companies  are bolstering their teams with employees. With more work-from-anywhere and work-from-home employment policies than ever before, many of these new employees are going to be based overseas. Could paying them all be more of a headache than many anticipated? Speaking at the Bavel Travel Summit in Barcelona – organized by Voxel Group – Spencer Hanlon said: “Many companies are feeling brave and venturing into new markets – or returning to old ones they withdrew from.” “That means employing and then paying new overseas staff.” “But often the locations these employees are based in will have a unique payments landscape and currency for businesses to navigate, which can increase costs.” The forex fees for paying someone in Bali, the Philippines, or Turkey, for example, might add another 10% to their total salary cost.” “Then there’s the headache and time consumed by the exchange rate risk.” “Meanwhile, if there’s one rule about paying your staff that’s nearly as important as paying them the right amount, it is paying them on time:” “Get it wrong once, and you face a lot of complaints, get it wrong twice, and people resign.” Hanlon says. “Overseas staff payroll can get exponentially more complicated very quickly. On that basis, we at Nium predict that there is going to be a whole load of needless payroll bottlenecks going on.” So how should travel companies looking to employ overseas staff respond to this challenge? Nium recommends that, if you’re currently still relying on traditional bank transfers to make this happen, then you’re almost certainly going wrong. Firstly, because of slow wire transfers via SWIFT, but also because this method is very expensive when you consider all of the associated costs, including hidden ones like poor exchange rates. Plus, you can never be sure if the person receiving the transfer will receive the exact required amount in their local currency, meaning if they don’t, you have to do yet another. Instead, you’ll need a global payments partner who offers you a service that includes multicurrency solutions, low exchange rate charges, and the ability to lock-in exchange rates in advance. Plus, you’re going to need transparency on the tracking of monies sent and controls on who can and can’t send what to where and when. This avoid frauds, reputational damage, and loss of trust. Nium provides global payment solutions for some of the world’s largest airlines and online travel agencies. Recently, it has enhanced its payroll solution – including end-to-end FX controls, beneficiary pre-screen and confirmation of payee, scheduled payouts, and direct debits in the US, UK and EU. Needless to say, everything outlined above is looking solely at the challenge of paying staff. The same applies to paying your suppliers, contractors, and other businesses, too. Whilst all of this might sound like an additional headache just as the high season is about to kick-off, the good news is that these recommendations can be introduced very quickly and with relative ease. Hanlon adds: “As the global travel industry continues to open up, the ability to hire and scale across borders will become a key differentiator for many.” “In today’s climate, there’s no excuse for payroll mishaps. Do the right thing now and make sure you’re ready to capitalise on the travel boom this summer.” Learn more about Nium

 

• Spencer Hanlon, from leader in real-time global payments Nium, warns travel companies not to let the high season spike in overseas staff turn into an expensive headache this year 

  As the high season is now upon us, travel companies of all kinds are bolstering their teams with employees. With more work-from-anywhere and work-from-home employment policies than ever before in our sector, many of these new employees are going to be based overseas. Could paying them all be more of a headache than many anticipated?   Speaking at the Bavel Travel Summit in Barcelona – organized by Voxel Group – Spencer Hanlon, from the leader in real-time global payments Nium, comments: “Many companies have now begun to feel brave and venture into new markets – or return to old ones they withdrew from – and that means employing and then paying new overseas staff.   “But often the locations these employees are based in will have a unique payments landscape and currency for businesses to navigate, which can increase costs – especially when talking about individual sums that aren’t so large. The forex fees for paying someone in Bali, the Philippines, or Turkey, for example, might add another 10% to their total salary cost.    “Then there’s the headache and time consumed by the exchange rate risk. Yes, had you considered that as the exchange rate fluctuates, the cost of that salary could be suddenly half or double what you originally budgeted for in your currency?    “Meanwhile, if there’s one rule about paying your staff that’s nearly as important as paying them the right amount, it is paying them on time: lots of people time their rent payments and other monthly bills to come out the day after they get paid. Get it wrong once, and you face a lot of complaints, get it wrong twice, and people resign.    “In other words, overseas staff payroll can get exponentially more complicated very quickly. On that basis, we at Nium predict that there is going to be a whole load of needless payroll bottlenecks going on.”   So how should travel companies venturing into employing overseas staff respond to this challenge?   Nium recommends that, if you’re currently still relying on traditional bank transfers to make this happen, then you’re almost certainly going wrong. Firstly, because of slow wire transfers via SWIFT, but also because this method is very expensive when you consider all of the associated costs, including hidden ones, like poor exchange rates. Plus, you can never be sure if the person receiving the transfer will receive the exact required amount in their local currency, meaning if they don’t, you have to do yet another.   Instead, you need a global payments partner who offers you a platform service that includes multicurrency solutions, low exchange rate charges, and the ability to lock-in exchange rates in advance. Plus, you’re going to need transparency on the tracking of monies sent and controls on who can and can’t send what to where and when, in order to avoid fraud, reputational damage, and loss of trust.   Nium provides global payment solutions for some of the world’s largest airlines and online travel agencies. Recently, it has enhanced its payroll solution – including end-to-end FX controls, beneficiary pre-screen and confirmation of payee, scheduled payouts, and direct debits in the US, UK and EU – to support the complex needs of these businesses and payroll platforms worldwide.   Needless to say, everything outlined above is looking solely at the challenge of paying staff. The same applies to paying your suppliers, contractors, and other businesses, too. Whilst all of this might sound like an additional headache just as the high season is about to kick-off, the good news is that these recommendations can be introduced very quickly and with relative ease. Hanlon sums up: “As the global travel industry continues to open up, the ability to hire and scale across borders will become a key differentiator for many. In today’s climate, there’s no excuse for payroll mishaps. Do the right thing now and make sure you’re ready to capitalise on the travel boom this summer.”

     

  Nium, a global leader in cross-border money movement, and Travel Ledger, a global B2B settlement network for the travel industry, have announced a strategic agreement to bring innovative payments solutions to travel businesses worldwide.   Nium's single platform for global payments and card issuing provides banks, fintechs, payment providers, and businesses of any size the ability to disburse and collect funds instantly across borders. Leveraging Nium's global payment network, the partnership expands Travel Ledger market reach to the whole of the UK, Europe, US, and beyond.   On the other hand, Travel Ledger simplifies the time-consuming processes of B2B invoicing and settlement by facilitating Travel companies to use a single data format and platform to exchange financial information rather than everyone using different formats.   Following data exchange and reconciliation between the parties, Travel Ledger automatically creates payment instructions for funds movements amongst the parties on the Nium platform, eliminating errors, speeding up processing and ultimately reducing costs.   With this partnership, Travel Ledger can settle directly and onboard faster companies internationally.   The collaboration between the two companies results in the integration of a variety of banking services on the Travel Ledger platform, providing increased settlement automation using a variety of payment methods. This integration will allow businesses to streamline their payment processes and benefit from reduced Account Receivable and Payable Account costs.   "Foreign exchange, local settlement, and instant 'on the platform' fund's transfer are some of the key features that our partnership with Nium brings to the table; we expect this partnership to not only simplify the remittance process but also lead to cost reductions compared to traditional banking services, making it a win-win for our customers worldwide," said Roberto Da Re, Travel Ledger CEO.   "Partnering with Nium is a significant step towards achieving our mission of simplifying the remittance process for the travel industry," added the Travel Ledger CEO. "We are confident this partnership will bring tremendous value to travel businesses worldwide."   “Our partnership with Travel Ledger showcases how our solutions can provide faster, and more cost-effective money movement alternatives that helps global businesses scale and increase their topline revenues” commented Spencer Hanlon, Global Head of Travel Payments & Head of Europe at Nium.   This partnership is a testament to Nium and Travel Ledger's commitment to driving innovation and providing businesses with the tools they need to succeed in today's fast paced digital economy. The companies look forward to helping businesses simplify their payment processes and achieve global goals.

Summary

  Global air travel has been fast rebounding, and there has never been a better time for the travel industry to rebuild the synergy of the ecosystem. For airlines, because of razor-thin margins, operational optimization has become the key focus. Technological innovation in facilitating B2B travel payments has evolved rapidly, and Nium has pioneered a new approach by developing a closed-loop B2B travel payments system.  

The Challenge

  Traditional card payments, which offer travel agents and OTAs financial incentives, strike at the core of an airline’s margins. Air Europa, one of Spain’s largest airlines, was keen to adopt a modern B2B travel payments solution that reduced payment costs, settled funds faster, and improved operational efficiencies. Aspiring to increase customer loyalty while delivering seamless payment experiences, Air Europa targeted driving higher conversion rates, building innovation into processes, and regaining control over costs impacting essential cash flow.  

The Solution

  Keeping this goal in mind, Air Europa partnered with Nium to power their B2B travel payments using the closed-loop Nium Airline Payments (NAP) to improve profitability tied up in thin margins and slower settlement times. With this solution, they could improve relationships with OTAs to respond to increased customer demand—all without requiring additional technical integration.  

“We were very inspired by Nium’s innovative approach to create an alternative payment method, being proud to offer it to our B2B partners. We are communicating the availability of this new option to our travel agencies, tour operators and TMC customers, and we hope that they will soon join us in taking advantage of the benefits of using it.”  

– Yago Casasnovas Head of Payment, Fraud Prevention and Distribution, Air Europa

The Results

  Nium’s unique closed-loop B2B travel payments solution (NAP) links to Air Europa’s system directly to service higher payment volumes. It’s a bank payment for the airline, a virtual credit card payment via UATP for the OTAs, and a win-win scenario for both. An added upside is better management of disputes and refunds.   Overall, the new B2B travel payments capabilities are helping the air travel industry respond to rapid growth in bookings and resulting in higher profit margins. This, in turn, is leading to lucrative incentives for OTAs in terms of routes, seasonality, business volumes, and more.  

To learn more, download the full case study or book a call with one of our B2B travel payments experts.

Overview

  Financial technology businesses help other businesses to overcome a range of financial challenges.   When the client came to us, they were seeking assistance with their payment infrastructure. At the time, they were making payments to employees and suppliers by cash and cheque, and manually managing and tracking their expenses.   By implementing Nium, issuing business expense cards, and digitising their expense management, they were able to reduce their corporate expenses by more than 50%.   With that said, the solution we implemented for this client can work for any business, regardless of industry. We have had the pleasure of implementing this same solution in a range of scenarios, and each has resulted in a 50%+ reduction.  

The Challenge

  In this case, the business we assisted was handling their expense management the same way many businesses do. Making payouts by cash and cheque, and manually processing and accounting for transactions.   The system they were using, while typical, consumed a lot of resources, and was putting them at a higher risk of misuse, fraud, and theft.   Here’s a typical example of how their payments were handled:  

• If an employee needed to make a payment, they’d have to ask the CEO or a team manager as they’re the only ones with authority to approve payments. As you can imagine, doing this every time someone needs to make a purchase is inefficient, time-consuming and costly.
• If the request is approved, the employee has to keep a copy of the receipt so they can give it physically or virtually to the finance team or manager. They’ll then manually document the transaction.

  While this system provides an illusion of control and order, in reality, it creates bottlenecks and reduces efficiency.   Managers and CEOs are too busy to watch over every transaction. Receipts are lost. Payments are not recorded. Unauthorised payments are made. Records don’t match up.   The odds of manually keeping track of everything and not having a single issue are slim. Even if everything goes to plan, this system still makes accounting and due diligence a serious challenge.   Fortunately, this particular client was in the finance industry and was confident that a better solution existed. While they lacked the resources to create their own solution, they knew that if they searched, they would find a solution already on the market.   While technological advancements have revolutionised many aspects of business operations, expense management has not been so fortunate. Most of the solutions available still relied on cash, cheques, and business credit cards.   Reliance on these outdated payment technologies limits the degree of impact and improvements that are possible. The client knew that if they only moved from cash/cheques to traditional credit cards, they would miss out on other growth opportunities.   On the other hand, Nium’s business expense cards are a revolutionary new way of managing corporate expenses that solve many of the flaws of traditional payment methods.  

Why They Chose Nium

  The client chose Nium as we allow businesses to improve the efficiency of their financial operations.   By providing employee expense cards and advanced expense management software, businesses can optimise their payroll, T&E/per diem, and payouts & disbursements. These changes alone can save businesses time and drastically reduce operational costs.   In the case of this client, they’d be able to solve the frustrating limitations of manually managing transactions with credit, cash and cheque. Such as:  

• Poor security against fraud and misuse.
• Lack of control and customisation.
• Difficulty of tracking and expense management.
• Inefficient, time-consuming approval and authorisation.
• Excessive demand on CEOs and managers.

 

How Do Corporations Benefit From Nium?

  As we mentioned earlier, Nium’s expense management and digital card platform provide a range of benefits that apply to any corporation in any industry. Here are just a few examples that benefited the client and can benefit you too:  

• Enhanced User Experience Digital wallets and open-loop cards provide frictionless payment solutions. Business expense cards help businesses to fund and limit transactions across categories: from payroll to travel cards, all within one wallet.

• Virtual & Physical Cards Part of what makes Nium unique is that our platform allows businesses like our client to provide employees with unique logins and personal debit cards. Better yet, Nium offers both virtual and physical card options.
• Streamlined Onboarding Unlike other providers, Nium is a Visa Issuer which means we can move from onboarding to issuing cards in 4 – 6 weeks, rather than 9 to 12 months. For corporations in a hurry, this is immensely valuable.
• Advanced Spend Control Real-time updates allow businesses to track and manage expenses as they happen. By giving each employee a card, you can control how much they have access to, where they can spend (based on Merchant Categories), how much they can spend (limits), when the access expires, and whether they need approval to make a transaction or are authorised to spend. Managers can also control spend amounts by categories and currencies too.
• Automated Reconciliation By digitising their entire financial system, businesses can streamline and automate their reconciliation. Each time a transaction is made, Nium automatically logs the transaction, approval history, receipts and more so your team don’t have to.
• Increased Earnings Nium creates a new revenue stream for businesses by giving them a share of the revenue they collect during each transaction. The more your employees spend, the more you earn.

 

How It Works:

 

1. Setup: After integrating Nium, businesses can set up and define their program using limits and controls.
2. Share: Once the program is complete, management can assign cards and login details to each employee. 
3. Fund: Each employee’s card is then prefunded with a set amount of money like a regular debit card.
4. Spend: Employees can spend the funds on approved items until the funds run out.
5. Track: Each payment is automatically tracked, logged and made into expense reports viewable within Nium’s app. 

  Ahead of World Tourism Day on 27^thSeptember – whose theme this year is ‘Rethinking Tourism’ – Spencer Hanlon, Head of Travel at B2B payments specialist Nium comments on how embracing the fintech revolution could benefit the tourism industry:    “When ‘rethinking’ any topic your mind naturally drifts to the future. You might ask ‘What’s coming down the line that can help us?’. No doubt for many aspects of the tourism industry this is the case, but when it comes to financial payments the reality is that the answers can be found in the present day (or even the recent past in some cases).   “What do I mean by that? The fintech revolution is transforming every area of our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined even only a decade ago. But when it comes to fintech too often the travel sector is lagging behind sadly and needs to rethink its approach.    “Already we have available new tools and services that not only breathe new life into processes we are familiar with, saving us precious time and often even more precious money, but also provide us with new opportunities we might not have considered before.   “For example the wider spread use of charge back protection could give greater peace of mind to both merchants and consumers, whilst helping to fight fraud. This would have the added benefit of bringing down costs for services too.    “Meanwhile a more widespread use and acceptance of credit and debit cards, along with other new digital payment methods, would mean travellers no longer need to take bundles of cash on holiday with them – making themselves targets for criminals (or just anxious they might lose it). In too many popular holiday destinations around the world, outside of Western Europe and North America, cash is still the accepted payment method for small sums of money (and even big sums sometimes!). Merchants would benefit too, cash is more costly (and risky!) than digital payments in the longer term and reduces the potential for staff stealing.    “Or just look at foreign exchange transactions. By allowing travellers to no longer be at the peril of expensive exchange rate booths at the airport terminal, we need to see more services that allow them to handle such transactions digitally and shop around for the best prices. Such services exist, some great ones event, but are not mainstream enough or appealing to older travellers.    “Behind the scenes in travel too B2B payments could also equally benefit from some ‘rethinking’ too. Technology exists that allows travel intermediaries and travel suppliers to make and receive payments much more quickly than ever before, for much less cost per transaction. Such tech also gives them greater ability for reconciliations and all their back office needs. Unfortunately a great majority, even in developed markets, still haven’t embraced such technology.”

  Reading the news headlines of ‘air chaos’ recently in Europe and North America you’d be under the impression that no-one is arriving at their destination.   But how many flights are really being cancelled as a percentage of the total? Is this leading to hotel cancelations too? And what is the wider impact for the travel industry?   Spencer Hanlon, Global Head of Travel Payments at B2B payments provider Nium comments:    “We process significant volumes of B2B payments between tour operators or travel agents to settle with airlines and hotels around the world, particularly Europe and North America – and when a refund takes place we know about it. The reality is that, despite all the negative news, refunds of both flights and hotels in June were only a tiny bit higher than May’s, at 1.87% vs 1.73%.   “And for what we’ve seen for July so far that has only increased again a tiny amount, with us estimating that July will see cancellations move up to just 2.38% (less than one in 40 bookings). If that sounds high consider that these figures are aligned with what we’d have expected for a summer pre-COVID.   “Nonetheless, with further disruptions planned for this summer in the forms of strikes and many big airlines cancelling massively – evidently travel sellers and travel providers need to be braced for increases in refunds. For a lot of travel businesses – be they an intermediary or a provider – refunds are problematic not just because of lost revenue but because of the administrative headache involved.   “The smart companies have now long-since digitized and streamlined their payments and refunds processes, allowing them to cope with such volatility. But there’s still time to change, who knows that kind of volatility could be round the corner?”   Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing & Sales at travel intelligence provider Mabrian comments:   “This data from Nium broadly fits with what we are seeing in terms of airline scheduling. Yes, there’s a very high number of flights being cancelled across Europe in absolute numbers, but in terms of the overall percentage of flights being cancelled the figures are quite low.   “Looking at recent cancellations of scheduled flights by comparing 14^th June’s schedule to 28^th June’s for flights from 1^st to 15^th July, the highest rate we’ve seen is for easyJet, which had cancelled around 5% of flights – but for some airlines, such as Air Europa that figure has been as low as 0.5%. Consider also that many of those whose flights were cancelled are being put onto alternative flights, so most will still be arriving.   “One issue that its potentially very concerning though is that the delays – or even simply just the perception or risk of delays – could lead to travellers having entirely unfair and unjustified negative perceptions about the destinations they are travelling too. This would impact their chances of returning to that destination or recommending to a friend. We’re keeping a close eye on social media monitoring tools that we have to see how visitor perception of destinations is evolving in relation to the news about air delays.”   Alice Ferrari, Founder & CEO of Kyte, an API used by airlines to sell NDC content, comments:    “Flight disruptions this summer are happening in unprecedented volumes with a major impact on travellers. Delays, missed connections, and lost luggage are causing a lot of stress for passengers going on their long-awaited holidays. Unfortunately airlines and suppliers have had to balance cost reductions to survive the pandemic, whilst trying to predict the return of demand for travel. Clearly traffic did not return gradually which caught the industry quite unprepared for the underlying challenges leading to the need for cancelations and delays.   “Current shortfalls highlight the need for much better tools to handle basic customer service. There is so much opportunity to bring in technology that enables seamless rebookings, provides passenger updates on information digitally in real time, automates refunds where needed, offers travellers options such as alternative routes via an app, uses AI and bots to respond to simple enquiries, and much more.   “What is the only way for such systems to work? They all need to be able to connect and exchange information.   “Whilst the airline industry is often criticised for poor technology and slow innovation, people often fail to remember how deeply complex and interlinked each system is and how all systems depend on one another. Often this is the route cause for the slow implementation of modern tools.   “At Kyte we envisage a world with no more queues or agents at a counter processing each passenger manually. However, we are not far from a world where travellers can self-serve and manage their alternative options on their own devices. The evolution is happening, but slowly.”   Leyla Allahverdiyeva, CSMO from RoadRunAir, a private jet tour operator, comments:    “Travelers do seem more concerned about cancellations, loss of luggage and delays when booking their holidays right now –  that we are hearing loud and clear from our travel advisor partners. Because of this recently we have seen an even higher pick up in both enquiries and bookings, as travel advisors know we use private airport terminals and our own private jets – and their clients feel more reassured by such an experience.”   Fabian Gonzalez from Forward_MAD, a luxury tourism conference taking place in Madrid this October, comments:   “Overall the luxury sector isn’t so worried about the cancellations and delays as the package holiday, mainstream tourism part of the industry is.   “Why? Firstly because the problems are mostly focused around the low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair; and secondly because it is the fly-and-flop package destinations that are being hit hardest. So in both cases luxury travellers tend not to be the target market.   “When we look at Madrid, for example, the top outbound destinations for luxury travellers are places like the Middle East, New York or Los Angeles in the US, or Mexico and Colombia in LATAM. Those travellers arrive with legacy carriers and these routes are profitable, so the airlines aren’t cutting there yet.   “Meanwhile the traditional private jet companies are in good shape and ready to break another record year, while new business models and startups in the private aviation segment are definitely gaining traction thanks in part to this chaos.”