Leading international provider of payment and billing solutions wins 2,000 new customers; Continues to expand global presence with a focus on growth markets.
LONDON – AirPlus International, a leading global provider of payment and billing solutions for business travel, remains on its strong growth course. In fiscal year 2012, the company earned 11.4 billion euros in billing sales with its credit cards, which represents a 10 percent increase over the previous year (2011: 10.4 billion euros). In addition, AirPlus acquired 2,000 new customers and increased its total number of customers to more than 40,000 worldwide.
AirPlus also achieved a substantial increase in its operating result for 2012, which at 38.8 million euros was more than 27 percent higher than the year before (2011: 30.5 million euros). Sales revenues remained constant at 288 million euros due to one-off effects.
Significant rise in operating result confirms strategy
“We also expanded our activities consistently in new international growth markets such as Australia,” explains AirPlus Managing Director Patrick W. Diemer. “They have a particularly high need for professional payment solutions and analytical tools for corporate business travel management.”
With its positive results in fiscal year 2012, AirPlus is asserting its position against the market trend. Whereas companies worldwide only spent 2.9 percent more on business travel in 2012, the business travel volume handled by AirPlus grew by 16 percent. Growth was most pronounced in the first six months of last year.
While Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland remain the largest markets for AirPlus, China and the United States are gaining importance. In these two markets AirPlus is recording its strongest growth. Additionally, emerging markets with above-average growth in business travel are the focus for expanding the company’s global presence, foremost among them India, China, Mexico, Turkey and Russia.
In all its activities, AirPlus consistently relies on the “Best local is best global” approach. Together with leading in-market banks, AirPlus offers products that are tailored to local needs. For this purpose, AirPlus entered into a partnership last year with J.P.Morgan Chase & Co. , the largest bank holding company in the United States. The partnership specifically targets multinationals that are based in the United States, providing AirPlus’ global business travel payments expertise and J.P.Morgan’s local banking insight.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
