Airlines handle vast amounts of sensitive payment data, making them prime targets for cyberattacks. At the same time, they must comply with stringent regulations like PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). This is where universal token vaults come in. These innovative solutions are transforming the way airlines handle transactions, offering enhanced security, streamlined compliance, and improved operational efficiency.

The Growing Challenges of Airline Payments

The airline industry’s payment ecosystem is complex, involving multiple channels such as airline websites, travel agencies, online booking platforms, call centers, and more. With various payment processors, acquirers, and gateways in play, ensuring secure and seamless transactions can be a daunting task. Airlines face three key challenges:

1. PCI DSS Compliance:

Achieving and maintaining compliance with PCI DSS can take months or even years. Airlines that try to manage this in-house often experience high costs and resource allocation issues.

2. Cybersecurity Risks:

Airlines are frequent targets of cybercriminals seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in payment processing systems.

3. Complex Payment Infrastructure:

Payments flow through multiple providers and channels, increasing the risk of transaction failures, data breaches, and inefficiencies.

How Universal Token Vaults Solve These Challenges

A universal token vault provides a centralized system for securing, managing, and utilizing payment data in a non-sensitive tokenized form. This technology significantly improves security and efficiency in airline payments by:

1. Reducing PCI DSS Compliance Burden

Universal token vaults keep sensitive cardholder data out of an airline’s infrastructure. Instead of storing raw payment data, airlines store non-sensitive tokens, which removes much of the compliance burden. This reduces the scope of PCI DSS audits, saving airlines time and money. A great example of this is Air Europa, which successfully reduced its PCI audit costs by tens of thousands of dollars using PCI Proxy. You can read the full case study here.

2. Enhancing Security and Preventing Data Breaches

By tokenizing payment information, universal token vaults ensure that even if a breach occurs, the exposed data is useless to cybercriminals. Unlike encryption, which can be decrypted, tokenization replaces sensitive data with a unique identifier that cannot be reverse-engineered. This significantly minimizes the risk of fraud and data theft.

As Yago Casasnovas, Head of Payments, Fraud Prevention and Distribution at Air Europa, explains:

“It means less PCI Scope, less PCI related costs, almost zero risk of suffering a cyber-attack.”

This statement highlights the crucial role of outsourcing sensitive payment data to a trusted third party like PCI Proxy, ensuring both security and cost efficiency.

3. Streamlining Payment Processing Across Channels

With multiple booking platforms, payment processors, and sales channels, airlines often struggle with fragmented payment processes. Universal token vaults allow seamless payment processing across direct and indirect channels by enabling airlines to store and exchange tokens freely across multiple providers. This reduces dependency on specific payment service providers (PSPs) and ensures operational continuity even in case of downtime.

4. Improving Payment Flexibility and Customer Experience

A universal token vault enables airlines to integrate with various payment service providers without disrupting operations. This flexibility ensures that passengers can pay using their preferred payment methods while airlines maintain full control over transactions. Additionally, automated failover mechanisms allow transactions to be rerouted to alternative PSPs in case of technical issues, improving reliability and customer satisfaction.

Why Airlines Should Adopt Universal Token Vaults

For airlines, implementing a universal token vault is a game-changer. It provides:

• Stronger security against cyberthreats and data breaches.

• Lower compliance costs by reducing PCI DSS requirements.

• Greater operational efficiency through seamless multi-channel payment processing.

• Increased flexibility to integrate with various payment providers.

• Enhanced customer experience by ensuring fast, secure, and reliable transactions.

Conclusion

In today’s digital-first world, airlines must prioritize payment security, compliance, and efficiency. Universal token vaults offer an innovative solution that not only enhances security but also simplifies compliance and streamlines payment operations. By adopting this technology, airlines can future-proof their payment infrastructure, protect passenger data, and deliver a seamless travel experience.

As the airline industry continues to evolve, investing in tokenization is no longer an option—it’s a necessity. To learn more about PCI Proxy and how we can support your payment security needs, read more about PCI Proxy or contact us today.