Oman Air Adds IATA Pay Option in India

Oman Air has implemented the International Air Transport Association’s Pay service in India via a partnership with travel technology firm TPConnects.

Sales agents in India now can select the IATA Pay service as an option when buying tickets and ancillary products through Oman Air’s New Distribution Capability channel. TPConnects, in which Flight Centre Travel Group took a majority stake earlier this year, supports the carrier’s NDC offer and order management.

Oman Air is the first carrier to implement IATA Pay, which provides “a highly secured, real-time bank transfer payment facilitated by IATA,” in its NDC channel, according to Oman Air SVP of revenue, retail and cargo Umesh Chhiber. The service ties to India’s instant collection system, Unified Payment Interface, which has been growing “at a breakneck pace” in India with transaction volumes doubling this year compared with last year, Forrester analyst Pushpa Marwal wrote in a recent blog post.

The carrier is working with IATA to launch IATA Pay in other countries, according to Chhiber. Besides India, IATA has plans to make IATA Pay live in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the U.K.

Michael B. Baker  www.businesstravelnews.com