CellPoint Digital To Create Payment Ecosystem For Avianca Airlines

Colombia-based Avianca Airlines announced Thursday (April 1) that it has partnered with CellPoint Digital to create an optimized payment ecosystem to improve customer experience and simplify the commercial airline’s internal processes.

Avianca said the project is one of its “most ambitious,” and “will also address the specific complexities of payment in Latin America.”

Using its payment orchestration platform Velocity, CellPoint Digital will integrate multiple payment service providers (PSPs), more than 40 payment methods and over 40 acquirers into one platform.

The platform will incorporate an additional 25 new payment methods, including digital wallets and Latin American and European-specific payment method options to allow a greater number of customers to use their preferred method of payment. Avianca flies to over 76 destinations in 27 countries across the Americas and Europe.

The new payment platform will not only accelerate the speed of customer payments and reduce the rate of rejected transactions, it will also automate and ease back-end processes like refunds and reconciliations, the press release noted.

“Failed or refused transactions are automatically retried through an alternative route to maximise acceptance rates,” according to the release.

Customers will be able to save a card on file, pay in the currency of their choice, pay with miles or vouchers and pay in installments or with multiple payment methods. They will also have a click-to-pay option.

The payment orchestration platform will also be available on Avianca’s B2B and distribution channels.

Payments orchestration can help the travel industry recover after being crushed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, CellPoint Digital’s Senior Vice President Product and Marketing Stephane Druet told PYMNTS recently. When the virus has made travel all the more cumbersome, it’s important to reduce friction wherever possible.

“In such challenging times, an airline cannot afford to lose a customer because their payment did not go through or they didn’t find their preferred payment method,” said Kristian Gjerding, CEO of CellPoint Digital, in the press release.