How Air Europa slashed PCI audit costs by tens of thousands with secure tokenization.
Air Europa is the third-largest airline in Spain, operating a massive network of domestic and international flights. As a member of the SkyTeam alliance, they connect millions of passengers across Europe, the Americas, and North Africa every year.
Industry
Airlines & Aviation
Size
4,000+ employees
Location
Mallorca, Spain
In conversation with
Background
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Llucmajor, Mallorca, Air Europa has grown from a charter airline into a global carrier with a fleet of over 50 aircraft.
They were a pioneer in adopting the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and continue to lead the way in sustainable aviation and digital transformation within the travel industry.
The Challenge
For a global airline, payment data flows in from thousands of touchpoints—mobile apps, websites, and call centers.
Maintaining a Level 1 PCI DSS certification for such a vast infrastructure was becoming an enormous financial and operational burden.
Taking the weight out of the audit
The sheer volume of transactions meant that their annual audits were becoming increasingly complex, expensive, and time-consuming.
"The airline previously faced a massive annual PCI audit that cost tens of thousands of Euros and required significant internal resources to manage."
The Solution
Air Europa integrated PCI Proxy to intercept and tokenize card data at the very edge of their infrastructure, ensuring sensitive data never entered their internal network.
Grounding the risk before takeoff
By using PCI Proxy’s universal tokenization, Air Europa could securely store card data for future use (like flight changes or refunds) without ever having the actual card numbers touch their servers.
"By implementing PCI Proxy, Air Europa was able to significantly reduce the scope of its PCI audit, as the sensitive payment data is now tokenized before it reaches their systems."
The Result
The financial impact was immediate. By moving the majority of their payment flow out of scope, the complexity of their annual audit plummeted.
Saving more than just time
The shift allowed their IT and security teams to focus on improving the passenger experience rather than managing the red tape of compliance.
"This has resulted in a direct saving of tens of thousands of Euros in annual audit costs and has freed up internal teams to focus on other business-critical tasks."
The Conclusion
In the airline industry, where margins are thin and security is paramount, efficiency is the name of the game.
Air Europa’s move to a token vault proves that PCI compliance doesn't have to be a "tax" on growth.
If you can reduce your scope, you reduce your spend—it’s that simple.
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