UATP Airline Distribution: Revolut promises to remove all friction from payments

New generation digital bank Revolut says it is working to remove all payments friction as it seeks to revolutionise the customer experience.

Leo Caporali, global enterprise sales manager for airlines and travel, at Revolut was speaking at the UATP conference on a panel discussing real time payments.

Speakers agreed that airlines are not necessarily looking for instant payment, but they are looking for more control to move business more into the direct channel.

Revolut believes its account-to-account Revolut Pay payment method not only eliminates all friction in the payments process but allows airlines to drive loyalty.

Caporali said: “We are not just simply an issuer, as you know us from the consumer side. We also have a million merchants who use us for business banking.

“But we are also an acquirer, and that’s why we connect the ecosystem. We do not want our card users to use their cards anymore, we want them to use Revolut Pay, a propriety payment method that removes all friction for the consumer.

“We already have an organic relationship with all of the airlines here today and our customers are already spending with you.”

Caporali said Revolut Pay, as well as driving loyalty through Revolut points, which currently 42 airlines are working with, it also increases acceptance rate to nearly 100%, eradicates lack of funds declines, accepts fraud liability, and deals with cross border Forex rates.

Yago Casasnovas, head of payments, fraud and distribution at Air Europa, said payments are becoming more important as airlines try to shift consumer into direct channels.

This means airlines are having to broaden their payment options to ensure they are offering the method that’s most popular in ever market they serve.

“Which actually become quite a struggle because you have limited resources and have to be able to act as a local player if you want to compete at a local level.”

Casasnovas said the carrier will implement any new opportunity that arises in the market, like Revolut Pay. “We are going to implement everything. If it does not work…then we will disable it.”

Caporali said: “The big shift is are issuers willing to start offering [payment] protection.”

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