By BTE
11-14-2017

UATP’s CEO, president and chair Ralph Kaiser offers BTE an in-depth look at this unique card provider and its benefits for corporate travel.

BTE: UATP has been a part of the airline industry since the early days of commercial aviation. Explain what makes UATP different.

KAISER: UATP was founded in 1936, and we have been and continue to be the best form of payment for control of data and costs. UATP is a charge card product like Visa, MasterCard and American Express with the major difference being that the cards you have in your pocket are issued by banks, whereas in the UATP Network, cards are issued by the airlines. The airline Issuers act the same way your bank acts; they have billing systems, they send invoices, they collect money and they pay the merchant, which in our case are the other airlines that accept UATP. That’s the fundamental difference; think about it like any other card, but think about who is the issuing bank. Our issuers are airlines. We are really embedded inside the airline and travel industry more deeply than other card brands, so we settle within the airlines’ clearing houses, we are present in every BSP, and ARC, and we are implemented through every GDS, including Travel Sky in China.

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