The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released new data showing airlines globally incurred $24.5 billion in payment costs to process $1.05 trillion in sales in 2025, a 10.4% increase in total costs versus 2023, while travel sales over the same period rose 7.7% from $977 billion in 2023. The average cost per transaction was $5 per passenger, compared with IATA's forecast that airlines will make a net profit of $4.50 per passenger in 2026. Of the $24.5 billion, $20.7 billion (84.5%) was payment fees or the direct cost of completing each transaction, $2.9 billion (11.8%) was airline operating costs including payment systems, delayed cashflow, staff and compliance, and $0.9 billion (3.7%) was lost to fraud or uncollected sales.
Cards carried the highest cost per transaction, with average payment fees at 2.53%, above the estimated overall average of 1.97%, while the lowest-cost payment options were at 0.01%. IATA said it is exploring solutions including lower-cost alternative payment forms: its IATA Pay service, which lets passengers use local instant payment solutions to buy travel, has been rolled out in 34 countries with 38 payment schemes, and its IATA Financial Gateway platform covers more than 170 countries and more than 300 payment methods. IATA also said about one in five ancillary purchase attempts are not completed because the initial payment attempt was refused and no other method was offered.