Aviation resembles more like financial services than transportation.
Every time a passenger books a seat, earns points, buys an upgrade, pays in instalments, or exchanges miles for rewards, money is moving through systems that look remarkably similar to banking infrastructure. Airlines hold customer balances, issue credit-linked products, process payments at huge scale, and manage complex ecosystems of partners and merchants. In many ways, they already operate like fintech companies, just without the mindset, product strategy, or ambition.
The opportunity sitting in front of them is enormous and I want airline executives to know what they are missing out on.
The clearest evidence comes from loyalty programmes. Across Europe, airline loyalty schemes have evolved into some of the most profitable parts of the business. During the pandemic, several carriers leaned on them for survival because investors viewed them as dependable financial assets rather than travel perks.
Take the case of International Airlines Group and its Avios ecosystem. It now functions more like a multi-brand financial network than just a frequent flyer currency. Customers collect and spend points through airlines, hotels, retail shopping, insurance products, and credit cards. In the UK, Avios-linked cards issued through partnerships with banks generate substantial recurring revenue because financial institutions buy points in bulk to reward spending behaviour.
This matters because the airline is no longer monetising only travel demand. It is monetising everyday consumer spending. That shift changes the role of the airline completely.
The same pattern can be seen with Lufthansa Group and Miles & More. The programme has become a commercial platform connecting airlines, retailers, payment providers, and banking products across Europe. Customers interact with the ecosystem continuously, even when they are not flying. That is exactly how fintech platforms behave: they create ongoing financial engagement rather than one-off transactions.
Meanwhile, low-cost carriers are also edging into embedded finance without fully calling it that. Ryanair aggressively pushes ancillary purchases during booking journeys, including insurance, car rental, seat upgrades, and partner services. These are financial interactions embedded directly into customer behaviour. The airline already owns the customer relationship, controls the checkout experience, and has rich behavioural data. Adding lending, wallets, subscription products, or smarter payment options is not a dramatic leap from where the industry already sits.
Consumers are ready for this evolution because expectations around payments have changed dramatically. People increasingly expect flexible payment methods, instant refunds, subscriptions, and personalised offers inside digital experiences. Airlines have historically lagged behind in these areas despite handling billions in customer transactions annually.
One area where this gap is becoming obvious is Buy Now, Pay Later. Several European travel companies have already moved here. Wizz Air partnered with Klarna to allow customers to split travel payments into instalments. This may seem like a small checkout feature, but it fundamentally changes conversion behaviour. Customers become more likely to book higher-value trips, premium seats, or add-on services when payment friction is reduced.
The airline benefits not only from increased sales but from deeper insight into consumer affordability and spending patterns. That data becomes strategically valuable over time.
Embedded finance also opens the door to entirely new business models for airlines. Imagine an airline wallet where travellers store balances, points, refunds, and travel credits in one place. Instead of waiting weeks for cash reimbursements, customers receive instant wallet credits that can be reused across flights, hotels, airport spending, and partner merchants. Airlines could reduce refund leakage while keeping customers inside their ecosystem longer.
This is already happening in adjacent sectors. European super-apps and mobility platforms have shown how payments, rewards, and financial products increase customer retention. Airlines are arguably even better positioned because travellers already trust them with identity verification, large purchases, and repeat transactions.
Another overlooked opportunity is subscription finance. Air France-KLM has experimented with this model by adopting subscription-style travel products and loyalty enhancements. Elsewhere in Europe, carriers increasingly offer annual memberships for lounge access, seat selection, or discounted fares. Financially, these products behave more like recurring revenue software businesses than traditional airline ticketing.
Then there is small business travel. Airlines hold extensive data on company travel patterns, employee mobility, and corporate spending. Yet very few provide financial products tailored to SMEs. There is room for airline-linked expense management, travel credit facilities, dynamic insurance, or integrated invoicing tools designed specifically for business travellers.
This is where fintech thinking becomes critical. The winners in embedded finance are not the companies that simply add payments. They are the ones that redesign the customer relationship around financial convenience.
Importantly, this does not mean airlines should try to become banks. Regulation, risk management, and capital requirements make that unrealistic for most carriers. But they do not need to own the full stack. The embedded finance market across Europe has matured rapidly, with specialist providers handling compliance, payments infrastructure, lending, and digital wallets behind the scenes.
The real competitive advantage for airlines is distribution. They already have millions of customers, high engagement during booking moments, trusted mobile apps, and valuable behavioural data. Most fintech startups would spend years and enormous marketing budgets trying to build what airlines already possess.
What is missing is strategic intent. Right now, many airline payment experiences still feel transactional and fragmented. Refunds are slow. Loyalty systems are confusing. Payment flexibility varies wildly between markets. Customer financial journeys often end the moment the booking is completed.
The next generation of airline growth will not come only from filling more seats. Margins are too thin and competition too intense for that alone. Growth will increasingly come from monetising the financial layer surrounding travel: payments, loyalty currencies, subscriptions, embedded insurance, instalment finance, and digital wallets.
In other words, airlines are already fintech platforms. They simply need to start acting like them.
About Philipp Buschmann, Co-Founder and CEO at AAZZUR
Philipp Buschmann is co-Founder and CEO at AAZZUR, a one-stop-shop for smart embedded finance experience. Recognised as a rising star in the FinTech space, AAZZUR’s mission is to build profitable banking whilst at the same time empowering consumers to have access to better informed financial choices.
Philipp is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience of working in Challenger Banking, Financial Services, IT and Energy across the world. He took one of his businesses public – Ignis Petroleum was publicly listed in the US and Germany.
Having started as a developer in Financial Services, Philipp has first-hand experience of the banking revolution from both a technology and financial perspective. His interest in behavioural economics helped inspire AAZZUR’s revolutionary work on customer centricity in banking.
Philipp holds an MBA from the London Business School. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and loves exchanging ideas, insights and discussing FinTech’s future. He has spoken at major Fintech events including Money 20/20, MoneyLive, Finovate, Fintech Matters, and the Future of Retail Banking.
