Visa Partners With Air Canada for BNPL Airline Purchases

Air Canada, the country’s largest domestic and international airline, announced Monday (April 4) that the airline has teamed up with Visa to bring its buy now, pay later (BNPL) Installment Solution to eligible credit cardholders.

“We’re excited that an iconic brand like Air Canada has an interest in the Visa Installments Solution,” Brian Weiner, vice president and head of product and digital at Visa Canada, said in a press release. “This speaks to the power of having a flexible, ubiquitous product offering that can integrate directly into the cardholder’s checkout experience.”

According to a PYMNTS Study, 66% of bridge millennial and millennial consumers have a positive view of retailers that offer BNPL as a payment option online and in store — and Air Canada’s partnership with Visa is capitalizing on this market.

Read more: BNPL And The In-Store Opportunity: Why Merchants Must Offer Payments Flexibility At The POS

“At Air Canada, we are focused on elevating the customer experience, and this includes providing our customers with a variety of seamless payment options when shopping with us,” said Keith Wallis, Air Canada’s senior director of distribution and payments.

“Visa is one of the most trusted brands in Canada and their close collaboration with major Canadian financial institutions provides a unique opportunity to deliver an exceptional shopping experience to our mutual customers,” Wallis added.

With this team up, Air Canada has become one of the first airlines to participate in the Visa Installments Solution, a huge step forward in the BNPL industry.

The collaboration between Air Canada and Visa is the latest example of a growing trend, with BNPL coming into more physical retail locations as well as into other industries, such as healthcare and entertainment subscriptions.

Related: i2c, Visa Team for FinTech Processing Across MENA

In late March, Visa announced another partnership with i2c, a digital payment and banking technology company.

The partnership gives FinTechs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region access to Visa’s global network and i2c’s issuing and processing platform through both companies’ digital solutions and advanced payments technologies.