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AirPlus International

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AirPlus International
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryCorporate payment system
Founded1989; 35 years ago (1989)
Headquarters
Neu-Isenburg
,
Germany
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsCorporate travel management
Procurement
Number of employees
1,146 (2023)
ParentSEB Kort
Websiteairplus.com

AirPlus International GmbH is a global corporate payment provider offering payment and data services for corporate travel management, procurement, and travel trade. Originally a subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, the company was acquired by SEB Kort in July 2024.[1][2] The company provides business-to-business payment services around business travel payment, accounting, and analysis functions, in particular with by issuing central lodged cards, corporate credit cards, and virtual credit cards.

History

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Foundation and early years

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The company's tradition began in the year 1986 with the Air Travel Card (distributed by Lufthansa), now known as the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP). As a result of being the first credit card, issued since 1936,[3] UATP/AirPlus card numbers start with the card issuer identification number prefix "1".[4]

On 22 December 1989 Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH was registered at the court in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Germany.[5] By 1993, the AirPlus credit card had 60,000 subscribers and was jointly owned by Aer Lingus, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Lufthansa, Sabena and Swissair.[6]

Development since 2000

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By 2000, AirPlus had enabled exporting of transaction information to SAP R/3 using an SAP module called "Sara" (SAP Airplus Reisekosten-Abrechnungssatz) in the data format "Lars" (Lufthansa Airplus Abrechnungs-Satz).[7] AirPlus International Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary based in the United Kingdom and founded in 2002.[8] In 2005, AirPlus launched AIDA (AirPlus Integrated Data and Acceptance), a virtual credit card solution,[9] whereby sixteen-digit payment card numbers are generated under the Mastercard prefix, which can be used for a limit number of transactions.[10]

In 2013 Hotel Reservation Service (HRS) enabled automated payment to hotels using automatically generated virtual credit card numbers issued by AirPlus.[11] As of 2015 Airplus was handling 1.3 million virtual credit card transactions per year.[12] In 2017 the company handled payments covering 18 million travel tickets.[13]

In 2017, the managing director Patrick Diemer predicted that most business travel processes would move to smartphones.[13] As of 2017 AirPlus was working on implementation of the strong customer authentication requirements for corporate cards.[14] During 2018 Mastercard and AirPlus launched a joint marketing campaign called "Virtual Cards: Accepted!".[15] During 2021, all previous AIDA virtual credit cards were set to expire on 31 July 2021 and be replaced by a new virtual credit card system.[9]

In the financial year 2019 Airplus had made a profit of €2 million, followed in 2020 by a loss of €146 million attributed to a reduction in business travel because of COVID-19 distribution. Subsequently, at the beginning of 2021, Lufthansa had planned to sell AirPlus for €1 billion along with parts of Lufthansa Technik.[16] As of December 2021, Lufthansa had cancelled its previous plan to sell the majority of Airplus as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.[17] Lufthansa previously planned to keep open the open of partially selling LSG Sky Chefs or AirPlus at a later stage.[18]

SEB Group announced its intention to acquire AirPlus from Lufthansa Group on June 21, 2023 for around 450 million euros ($491 million), pending regulator approvals.[19] The sale was completed in July 2024.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "SEB har slutfört förvärvet av Airplus" [SEB has completed the acquisition of Airplus]. Dagens industri (in Swedish). 31 July 2024.
  2. ^ "SEB to acquire AirPlus to create a leading European provider in corporate payments". sebgroup.com. 2023-06-21. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  3. ^ https://uatp.com/faqs/
  4. ^ "Air Plus Additional Information". Farelogix. 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-01. UATP was the world's first credit card, denoted with numbers beginning with 1; The UATP cards were also the first to feature the magnetic stripe. As the leading issuer worldwide of UATP, the UATP logo appears on AirPlus cards today. Air Plus is a special type of Master Card that is used specifically for Business Travel, issued by UATP. The UATP brand is accepted by 220 airlines worldwide. Employees of participating countries receive a co-branded credit card (i.e. Mastercard) with which travel and entertainment expenses are billed. … Important Note: The UATP card type does not require a CCV code when issuing documents; this differs from all other supported cards.
  5. ^ "A Lufthansa offshoot with a startup feel". Communications. AirPlus International: how it all started. AirPlus. 2019. Retrieved 2021-12-01. [In 1989] A new company, Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH, was entered in the Commercial Register at the Local Court of Offenbach on December 22 … In 1992, the financial services company presented the world's first credit card to feature a chip.
  6. ^ Clark, John W.; Acting Assistant Attorney General (1993-01-13). Response to AirPlus' Request for Business Review Letter (Report). United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Archived from the original on 2021-12-01. Retrieved 2021-12-01. AirPlus was formed in 1986 by a number of European airlines in order to provide a business-oriented travel expense charge card. It is operated by AirPlus Company, Ltd., a British corporation based in London, the stock of which is currently owned by nine participating airlines: Aer Lingus, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Lufthansa, Sabena and Swissair. … AirPlus has a license from the Universal Air Travel Plan ("UATP"). … Presently, there are 60,000 subscribers.
  7. ^ Arndt, Martin (2000). Probst, Albert (ed.). "Lufthansa Airplus ist zertifizierter SAP-Partner" [Lufthansa AirPlus is certified SAP-Partner] (PDF). SAPlement (in German). No. 3. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-12-02. Die Abrechnungsdaten für die »Airplus Company Card« wie auch für die »Airplus Corporate Cards »können von Unternehmenskunden nun direkt im SAP-Format bezogen werden. … Die Schnittstelle zum SAPModul – sie trägt den Namen »Sara« (SAP Airplus Reisekosten-Abrechnungssatz) … von Lufthansa Airplus versorgt werden – und zwar in den Formaten »Lars« (Lufthansa Airplus Abrechnungs-Satz) und Edifact.
  8. ^ AirPlus International Limited (Report). Company number 04449144. Companies House. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  9. ^ a b Perrotta, Adam (2021-05-18). "AirPlus Relaunches Virtual Card Offering". Business Travel News. Retrieved 2021-12-01. AirPlus has a long history with virtual cards, launching the AIDA platform in 2005 in Europe before bringing it to the U.S. in 2017. … Existing users of AirPlus AIDA cards are in the process of being migrated to the new platform, with all virtual cards issued via the former system expiring on July 12, 2021. … The Classic and Procurement cards can be issued in single-use versions for one-time payments or multi-use for recurring payments, while the Travel Agency card is offered only on a single-use basis.
  10. ^ Witzel, Tobias (2015). "Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH". CP on RTS specifying the requirements on strong customer authentication. European Banking Authority. Retrieved 2021-12-02. AirPlus, for example, provides a central account for all business travel expenses of multiple travelers to be paid with one invoice. Complementary, as a "virtual solution" there is the so-called A.I.D.A (AirPlus Integrated Data and Acceptance) … generates 16-digit MasterCard numbers which are perfect to pay for travel and business events. These virtual Mastercard numbers and their transactions are linked to one central account and will be paid with one invoice.
  11. ^ DeLuna, Jo Ann (2013-10-04). "HRS Integrates AirPlus Mobile AIDA Virtual Card Solution". Business Travel News. Retrieved 2021-12-02. When users book a hotel reservation through HRS, a virtual MasterCard number is generated and automatically sent to the hotel
  12. ^ DeLuna, Jo Ann (2016-08-01). "Virtual Cards: The Problems & the Solutions". Business Travel News. Northstar. In 2015, AirPlus processed more than 1.3 million virtual card transactions for hotel rooms …
  13. ^ a b Diemer, Patrick W. (2017-10-20). ""Alle Prozesse wandern aufs Smartphone"" ["All processes are migrating to the smartphone"]. Handelsblatt (Interview). Retrieved 2021-12-01. Herr Diemer, 18 Millionen Tickets wurden im vergangenen Jahr über die Lösungen von AirPlus abgerechnet. … Abrechnen via Smartphone-App ist also absolut ein Thema und als effizienter Fortschritt einzuordnen. Im asiatischen Raum ist die Situation eine andere: Smartphone-Lösungen sind selbstverständlich, die betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung und Nutzung von Reisedaten eines Unternehmens hingegen nicht.
  14. ^ Cohen, Amon (2017-12-05). "Corporate Lodge & Virtual Cards Are Exempted from Final European Payment Security Rules, but Challenges Remain for Plastic Cards". Retrieved 2021-12-01. AirPlus is creating a working group of card companies, global distribution systems, TMCs and other relevant parties to figure out a mutual approach to SCA. The group will meet in Germany for the first time this month
  15. ^ "Virtual cards: Accepted! AirPlus and Mastercard launch joint campaign for virtual cards". Press Releases (Press release). Mastercard. 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2021-12-02. Together with Mastercard, AirPlus International are launching a new campaign: "Virtual Cards: Accepted!"
  16. ^ "Lufthansa verkauft Tafelsilber" [Lufthansa sells the family silver]. Travel Inside. 2021-03-11. Retrieved 2021-12-01. Airplus soll im Sommer eine Milliarde in die Kasse spülen. … Airplus ging 1989 als Ableger aus der Lufthansa hervor, beschäftigt 1300 Mitarbeiter und hat weltweit zirka 48'000 Firmenkunden. Im Corona-Jahr 2020 macht die Firma mit Ableger in der Schweiz einen Betriebsverlust von EUR 146 Mio., im Jahr zuvor lag der Gewinn bei EUR 2 Mio.
  17. ^ Koenen, Jens; Schütze, Arno (2021-11-30). "Liquide wie lange nicht: Lufthansa zögert mit Verkauf von Tochtergesellschaften" [More liquid than for a long time: Lufthansa now hesitating to sell its subsidiaries]. Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-01. Eigentlich sollte der Verkaufsprozess längst gestartet sein – doch jetzt wird er erst mal komplett verschoben.
  18. ^ Dunn, Graham (2021-11-03). "Lufthansa still pondering MRO unit options as strengthening efforts continue". FlightGlobal. Retrieved 2021-12-01. strategy is potential divestments. The group has already indicated it will consider the sale of travel management company Airplus and catering unit LSG when the market recovers sufficiently, potentially in the second half of next year [2022].
  19. ^ Solsvik, Terje; Chabba, Tristan (2023-06-21). "Lufthansa to boost margins with sale of payments unit to SEB". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-06-21. Retrieved 2021-12-01. Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Wednesday it has agreed to sell its AirPlus payments subsidiary to Swedish bank SEB (SEBa.ST) for around 450 million euros ($491 million), boosting the German airline group's operating margin and return on capital.
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