Eye on Airlines: UATP Works with Klarna on BNPL; CellPoint Digital Orchestrates Another Airline

Airline payments powerhouse UATP says it will offer buy now, pay later services from Klarna AB. Meanwhile, CellPoint Digital has signed Arajet, a Dominican Republic startup airline as a payments-processing client. UATP, a Washington, D.C.-based global payments network, says its new partnership with Klarna will enable airlines to offer Klarna’s BNPL payment option to customers. UATP says travel is a growth market for Klarna because credit cards account for 70% of retail travel payments and airlines spend $20 billion annually on payment processing. The Klarna BNPL option benefits UATP because it provides another BNPL choice for its clients. UATP added PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Pay in 4 service in 2021, and in 2022 BNPL travel specialist Uplift was signed as a UATP partner. UATP says the Klarna partnership enables airlines and other travel merchants on the UATP network to offer the BNPL payment option more quickly and can reduce implementation work and potentially lower the cost per transaction. “This agreement with UATP means we can quickly bring these benefits to many more airlines and tap into the huge growth opportunity, which the $1 trillion travel industry represents for us,” Erin Jaeger, Klarna head of North America, says in a statement. Klarna is expected to be available via UATP beginning in the third quarter. In related news, London-based CellPoint Digital, a specialist in payments orchestration, says it will initially enable installment card payments on Arajet flights. Arajet is the national flag carrier of the Dominican Republic that serves 23 destinations in 16 countries with 10 Boeing aircraft. CellPoint Digital says this provides travelers with cost flexibility and could reduce the number of abandoned bookings and help with customer retention. Eventually, a range of alternative payment methods could be added. Arajet says the availability of these APMs is well suited to the regions it serves and as it grows. Arajet was founded in 2022.