Sabre, Amadeus Launch Non-Air Payment Platform Worldwide

Sabre and Amadeus today launched its Moneydirect non-air payment joint venture, following last week's approval by the European Commission.

The global distribution competitors last month said they had partnered to form the business focusing on automated, multi-GDS payment, processing, clearing and reconciliation for non-air segments, including hotel, rental car and rail.

"There are various forms of payment mechanisms for non-air processing, most notably the manual process associated with payment via check," CEO and general manager James Filsinger said. "There really is no true industry standard for the non-ARC, non-BSP type travel product for payment processing." Filsinger noted the system is GDS-agnostic, and also can work through other channels.

Moneydirect already has been active as an Amadeus Australia-owned business operating in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines, where roughly 6,000 clients annually process about 2 billion transactions, the company said. The new joint venture, however, today is going live as a "global, cross-border, cross- currency" payment and settlement platform, Filsinger said. He said Moneydirect has further functionality developments in the pipeline.

Customers can set up an account to submit, collect, authorize, monitor and report on such payments as travel agency commissions or direct settlements. Filsinger said Moneydirect charges on a transaction basis, ranging between 10 cents and a "couple of dollars," largely dependent on the complexity of the transaction.

Sabre and Amadeus hold a 50-50 stake in the joint venture, which is headquartered in Ireland and has subsidiaries in the United States and Australia.

Following a review, the European Commission last week granted approval for the joint venture. "Given the limited size and scope of Moneydirect's business, the fact that this business is not closely related to the parties' GDS business and the fact that Amadeus and Sabre have put in place structures to limit the information flows between Moneydirect and its parent companies, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would not risk impeding effective competition," the EC concluded.