UATP member airlines soon will be able to accept payments
made via ubiquitous Chinese mobile payment services Alipay, WeChat Pay and
China UnionPay over UATP's own payment rails.
The airline payment network has signed Citcon as a partner
in its alternate form of payment processing business. Based in Silicon Valley,
Citcon specialises in providing merchant acquiring and other services related
to the North American and European acceptance of the popular China-based mobile
wallet payment systems, which collectively are used by more than 1 billion
Chinese consumers.
Under the alliance, Alipay, WeChat Pay and China UnionPay
transactions will run over the UATP network, so customers will see those mobile
payment brands on the airline's merchant website and mobile app.
"The end customer will not notice the difference on the
front end; they just see the payment brands they want to use, and UATP makes it
easier for merchants to offer these brands to their customers," said UATP
president and CEO Ralph Kaiser.
Leveraging the air carrier network's existing payment
infrastructure "enables speed-to-market, as UATP is connected to the
world’s airlines already and so the lift on IT needs is minimised," Kaiser
added.
Acceptance of Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay has become
paramount for airlines and other travel providers seeking to unlock the massive
potential of the Chinese market, where those services occupy the centre of most
consumers' personal and corporate payment lives. Earlier this year, CWT
overhauled its MyCWT booking tool in China with an emphasis on supporting
payments made via those mobile services.