AirPlus International

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

is a global corporate payment provider offering payment and data services for

corporate travel management Corporate travel management is the function of managing a company’s strategic approach to travel (travel policy), the negotiations with all vendors, day-to-day operation of the corporate travel program, traveler safety and security, credit-car ...

procurement Procurement is the process of locating and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. The term may also refer to a contractual ...

, and travel trade. Originally a subsidiary of

Lufthansa Group Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks second in Europe by p ...

, the company was acquired by SEB Kort in July 2024. The company provides

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when: * A business sources materials for its production process for ...

payment services around business travel payment, accounting, and analysis functions, in particular with by issuing central lodged cards, corporate credit cards, and virtual credit cards.

History

Foundation and early years

The company's tradition began in the year 1986 with the Air Travel Card (distributed by

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

), now known as the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP). As a result of being the first credit card, issued since 1936, UATP/AirPlus card numbers start with the card issuer identification number prefix "1". On 22 December 1989 Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH was registered at the court in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

, Hesse, Germany. By 1993, the AirPlus credit card had 60,000 subscribers and was jointly owned by

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. ...

Austrian Airlines Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian or AUA, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where i ...

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

Finnair Finnair Plc (, ) is the flag carrier and largest full-service legacy airline of Finland, with headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its airline hub, hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international ...

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

, Sabena and

Swissair Swissair (German language, German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French language, French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne, stylised as swissair) was the Flag carrier, national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and ban ...

Development since 2000

By 2000, AirPlus had enabled exporting of transaction information to

SAP R/3 SAP R/3 is the former name of the enterprise resource planning software produced by the German corporation SAP AG (now SAP SE). It is an enterprise-wide information system designed to coordinate all the resources, information, and activities needed ...

using an

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

module called "Sara" () in the data format "Lars" (Lufthansa Airplus ). AirPlus International Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary based in the United Kingdom and founded in 2002. In 2005, AirPlus launched AIDA (AirPlus Integrated Data and Acceptance), a virtual credit card solution, whereby sixteen-digit

payment card number A payment card number, primary account number (PAN), or simply a card number, is the card identifier found on payment cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, as well as stored-value cards, gift cards and other similar cards. In some situat ...

s are generated under the Mastercard prefix, which can be used for a limit number of transactions. In 2013 Hotel Reservation Service (HRS) enabled automated payment to hotels using automatically generated virtual credit card numbers issued by AirPlus. Airplus was handling virtual credit card transactions per year. In 2017 the company handled payments covering travel tickets. In 2017, the managing director Patrick Diemer predicted that most business travel processes would move to

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s. AirPlus was working on implementation of the strong customer authentication requirements for corporate cards. During 2018 Mastercard and AirPlus launched a joint marketing campaign called "Virtual Cards: Accepted!". During 2021, all previous AIDA virtual credit cards were set to expire on 31 July 2021 and be replaced by a new virtual credit card system. In the financial year 2019 Airplus had made a profit of , followed in 2020 by a loss of €146 million attributed to a reduction in business travel because of COVID-19 distribution. Subsequently, at the beginning of 2021, Lufthansa had planned to sell AirPlus for along with parts of

Lufthansa Technik Lufthansa Technik AG ('Lufthansa Engineering', often referred to simply as "LHT") is a Germany-based company that provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft, engines, and components. It is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa ...

. , Lufthansa had cancelled its previous plan to sell the majority of Airplus as a consequence of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained ...

. Lufthansa previously planned to keep open the open of partially selling

LSG Sky Chefs LSG can refer to: Organizations * LSG Group, an aviation services company * League of Saint George, a far right group * , LGBTQ Esperantist organization * Louisiana State Guard, the state defense force of Louisiana * Lucknow Super Giants, an I ...

or AirPlus at a later stage.

SEB Group Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (; lit. "Scandinavian Private Bank"), abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Nor ...

announced its intention to acquire AirPlus from Lufthansa Group on June 21, 2023 for around 450 million euros ($491 million), pending regulator approvals. The sale was completed in July 2024.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Airplus International Companies based in Hesse Financial services companies established in 1986 Lufthansa Group Payment systems 1986 establishments in West Germany 2024 mergers and acquisitions