Aeromexico has seen "stellar" growth in use of the UATP network by customers since it joined earlier this year, say UATP executives.

Usage has grown by more than 20% month-on-month during the past three months to more than 26,000 transactions during the most recent month, according to the airline-owned network. The airline launched the UATP programme during the second quarter.

"They've done everything right," says Ralph Kaiser, president and chief executive of UATP, on the sidelines of the ALTA Airline Forum 2012 in Panama City. "You have to align everybody inside the airline - sales, distribution, marketing, revenue and accounting - and you have to have a champion who takes it and says this is the product."

Aeromexico offers the UATP products to customers in Brazil, Mexico and the USA, with multi-currency and multi-lingual solutions. It also uses the network's DataStream and DataMine tools.

UATP is talking to "every major airline" in Latin America about joining, says Kaiser. Brazil's Gol as well as Aeromexico are members.

Airlines in the region can save the fees of 3-4% per transaction that they pay to commercial credit card companies when customers book flights by using UATP, according to the network.

Latin American airlines can also take advantage of UATP through its partnerships with alternative payment brands, including PayPal, SafetyPay and UKash. Aeromexico and Volaris are already processing payments through PayPal over the UATP network, says Kaiser.

Source: Flight Daily News