25th September, 2013
Nigeria’s largest airline, Arik Air, and the International Air Transport Association, IATA, have signed a weblink agreement, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.
Arik said the agreement allows accredited travel agents direct sales into the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) system.
The Billing and Settlement Plan, BSP, also known as Bank Settlement Plan, is an electronic billing system designed to facilitate the flow of data and funds between travel agencies and airlines.
The advantage of such an intermediary organisation is that instead of each travel agency having an individual relationship with each airline, all of the information is consolidated through the BSP.
BSP’s are organised on a local basis, usually one per country.
However, there are some BSP’s which cover more than one country (for example the Nordics).
The International Air Transport Association disclosed that at the close of 2011, there were 88 BSPs, covering 176 countries and territories and serving about 400 airlines with gross sales processed amounting to USD 249 billion.
The agreement between Arik and IATA was signed by Arik Air Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, and the Director General of IATA, Mr. Tony Tyler during the IATA Aviation Day Africa 2013 held in Lagos, western Nigeria.
Weblink is an alternative means to Global Distribution Systems (GDS) channels.
“It allows the IATA accredited travel agents to access the Arik inventory and pricing directly via Mercator Airline Reservations System (MARS) bypassing the GDS,” said Banji Ola, Arik Air spokesperson.
Ola explained that with Weblink, all reservations and ticketing transactions are direct via Weblink to MARS, with sales reported as individual transactions to the BSP Data Processing Centre (DPC).
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ndulue said the agreement is one step forward in making things easier for travel agencies and passengers. Arik Air intends to implement Weblink in Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal markets and later in other offline Central West African markets such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Togo.
—Simon Ateba