Driving Revenue Through an Optimized Digital Channel
How Air Europa optimized its digital channel to safely expand its flight routes and become a global player
- 15% increase in approval rate
- 95% decrease in chargeback rate
- $$ double digit online revenue growth
Meet Air Europa
Air Europa was founded in 1986 as one of the first private airlines in Spain. By 1993, they flew the first domestic flight operated by a private airline in Spain. In 1995, Air Europe offered their first international flight between Madrid and London, and a year later they were crossing the Atlantic with flights to New York. Over the years, the company has expanded to markets on five continents.
Being part of the Globalia Group – a wide business network that incorporates travel service providers and various agencies – Air Europa relied on group agents to sell airline tickets. In 2016, a decision was made to transform the digital channel into a simple and independent revenue generator. The website and the app were optimized, and the backend was revamped accordingly.
Head of Payments, Fraud Prevention & eCommerce
To transform our digital operations, we needed to think about how to handle fraud efficiently. Keeping it simple was paramount, especially while growing as an airline.
The Challenge
The rewards for Air Europa’s investments were immediate. They noticed a significant revenue boost from digital sales, which complemented overall growth that included new routes, a new fleet of airplanes, and a growing customer base. But, as it often does, quick growth made Air Europa a target for fraud, which resulted in higher chargeback rates.
Air Europa went on Visa’s chargeback program, which mandated tighter risk controls and led to more costly false declines and lower approval rates. To maintain its progress, Air Europa’s digital operations needed to scale with their ambitions, and their system needed to be brought back into balance.