At the UATP Airline Distribution conference, Revolut outlined its strategy to eliminate payment friction in aviation through Revolut Pay, an account-to-account method. Leo Caporali, Revolut’s global enterprise sales manager for airlines and travel, emphasized during a real-time payments panel that airlines seek greater control to shift business to direct channels rather than instant settlements.
Revolut Pay connects ecosystems as both issuer and acquirer, serving one million merchants for business banking. Caporali stated, “We do not want our card users to use their cards anymore, we want them to use Revolut Pay, a proprietary payment method that removes all friction for the consumer.” The solution drives loyalty via Revolut points, with 42 airlines currently engaged, achieves nearly 100% acceptance rates, eliminates insufficient funds declines, accepts fraud liability, and handles cross-border Forex rates.
Yago Casasnovas, Air Europa’s head of payments, fraud, and distribution, noted airlines must expand options to act as local players in each market despite limited resources. Air Europa plans to implement Revolut Pay and disable it if ineffective. Aer Lingus case data shows Revolut Pay yielding over 98.5% authorization rates and under 10% cart abandonment. Caporali highlighted issuers’ readiness to offer payment protection as a key shift.
Panelists agreed airlines adopting flexible options like bank-to-bank payments maintain competitiveness amid rising digitization post-Covid.