A frontal assault on credit card companies is being launched by the global airline industry and Deutsche Bank with a new electronic real-time payment system for plane tickets that seeks to save carriers billions of euros in transaction fees. The new system for web-based ticket sales to individual passengers, which does not have a brand name yet, is scheduled to be rolled out across Europe from the end of 2018, with Germany as the first market. IATA estimates that the global airline industry’s payment processing costs add up to US$8b a year, with credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard usually charging between 1% and 3% in fees. In contrast, the system developed by IATA and Deutsche Bank will charge a fixed fee which will be “a matter of cents”, said IATA. <br/>
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ICAO has signed an MOU with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to cooperate on international air transport security. “The partnership between UNODC and ICAO can help to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement agencies working at airports in source, transit and destination countries to detect and intercept drugs, illicit goods and criminals,” UNDOC executive director Yury Fedotov said May 3. “This is vital as traffickers and high-risk passengers seek to exploit new transportation modes for criminal activities, and ever-increasing passenger numbers and growing connectivity present new challenges in countering the shipment of drugs and other illegal goods, whether on passengers, in luggage, through air cargo, by private aircraft or by parcel post and express,” Fedotov said. <br/>
The trip between Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur is the world’s busiest international air route, with more than 30,500 flights between the cities in the year to February, a new study showed. There were on average 84 flights daily making the short hop which takes about an hour, according to the study by air travel intelligence firm OAG. A high-speed railway line is being built to link the cities and is expected to be completed in 2026, cutting travel time overland to 90 minutes from around 5 hours. Asia dominated the list of the world’s 20 busiest international air routes, with 14 operating to and from destinations in the region, OAG said. Two operate within Europe, 2 in North America, 1 between North America and Europe, while another is in the Middle East, it added. <br/>