How can FX Box help airlines drive revenue growth?

Today, I want to offer some follow-up information on a fireside chat Outpayce hosted to discuss FX Box and the opportunities it offers to airlines.

Alongside my colleague Nina Chambas, Product Manager for FX Solutions here at Outpayce, we discussed the multi-pricing solution, exploring how it can allow travelers to pay for their trips in a familiar currency, while giving airlines an opportunity to drive incremental revenue growth.

Cross-border payments are more popular than ever. From remittance payments to international commerce, consumers expect flexibility to pay with currencies they know in a cost-effective, convenient way.

However, there are inherent risks in these expectations.

For example, if the exchange rate used to price in the customer’s currency is not updated regularly, an airline may be exposed to two currency risks:

1. Overcharge the customer and be uncompetitive or undercharge, leading to lost revenue.

2. At the same time, carriers can be exposed to intraday FX risk if rates are not monitored or guaranteed.

FX Box - a transparent, automated, end-to-end solution for multi-currency pricing which puts airlines in charge of their currency conversion process.

Carriers have the capability to oversee the currency conversion process efficiently by using current FX rates, therefore seizing the chance to retain profit margins that might otherwise be taken by the payment schemes or acquirers. Moreover, airlines can provide tailored experiences to their global audience, delivering competitive rates in a range of currencies of their choice.

Following thepresentationwe received a number of questions from potential adopters – some of which I would like to address below.

Perhaps most importantly, we were askedin which currency is the ticket issuedand how does the revenue account and reconciliation of settled funds work?

This is fundamental to how FX Box operates and is a great question. The ticket is issued in the Point of Sale (POS) currency. All FX Box customers will have access to Multi Currency Pricing (MCP) specific reports, containing the details of both the POS currency and MCP currency per document. There are over 50 data points within the report to assist airlines with reconciliations.

At the same time, MCP information is also available in the Passenger Name Record (PNR) (remark line or FOP hidden data), as well as in the Data Accounting File (HOT) (upon request).

Next, viewers were keen to know if there are anyPayment Service Provider (PSP) or acquirer limitationswhen using FX Box? I am happy to say, no. FX Box is acquirer and PSP agnostic. The acquirer needs to be able to settle in the MCP currency or in a currency that is agreed between the merchant and the acquirer.

We were also asked, whatcurrency pairs are on offeras part of FX Box? In this instance, rates can be sourced for all official ISO currencies which are the three-letter alphabetic codes that represent the various currencies used throughout the world.

How about reporting? What data is available to help airlinestrack success of the currenciesand margins offered? Outpayce are developing an FX Box analytics module to include dashboards which will display MCP adoption information by country, currency and office ID/market segment. Month-on-month and year-on-year trend analysis on profits and volumes will also be made available.

Perhaps leaving the most technical to last, we were asked if FX Box can be utilizedwith alternative payment methods.

I am happy to say that FX Box will also support Alternative Methods of Payments (AMOPs) by the second half of 2024. As we to enhance and evolve FX Box, we will look to support other forms of payments.

The adoption of FX Box is growing and if you want to know more there is more informationhere .