Southwest customers get Apple Pay as payment option

Southwest Airlines flyers can now use Apple Pay to purchase tickets and ancillary products. The rollout begins with the Southwest app and will be extended to the carrier’s website in 2020, said Ralph Kaiser, CEO of the UATP corporate card payment network.

Southwest director of treasury, payments and risk Christopher Priebe said that providing digital payment solutions is critical.

“The launch of Apple Pay enhances our ability to sell flights as well as ancillary products using one of the most widely-used digital wallets in North America,” he said. 

Other U.S. airlines that accept Apple Pay include United and Delta. JetBlue accepts Apple Pay for inflight purchases.

Airline-owned UATP is supporting Southwest’s Apple Pay functionality in concert with CellPoint Digital, a mobile payment service provider that focuses on the airline industry. Their companies partnered in 2018 with the intent of helping airlines fast-track the launch of new payment methods. The solution involves overlaying the CellPoint platform onto the UATP card payment platform that is already used by airlines.

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