Amadeus payments division Outpayce has launched what it claims to be the first payments marketplace dedicated to travel.

The Xchange Payments Platform (XPP) allows airlines to browse, sort and filter payments partners it is connected to.

Outpayce says XPP will help with payment orchestration through an interactive catalogue of capabilities, helping airlines choose the right connection and improve payments performance.

The marketplace also allows Outpayce’s airline customers to understand which countries, currencies and services are available with each connection.

Jean-Christophe Lacour, senior vice president and global head of product management and delivery at Outpayce, said:

“An airline might need to begin accepting several alternative payment methods to support new route expansion across a region.

“With our marketplace catalogue it’s easy to identify partners across those markets, using live transaction data from our platform to further assess the relevance of each prospective partner.

“If a partner is already supporting millions of travel-specific transactions in a region it builds confidence and helps travel companies move faster.”

Outpayce says XPP will reduce the decision-making time by providing live data of the volume of travel companies and travel payments transactions each payment partner supports.

Once an airline has requested a new capability from the marketplace, they can initiate the activation process from within the tool, and update payments orchestration flows ensuring the new capability is correctly factored into the airline’s payment routing decisions.

“The marketplace is a foundational step in Outpayce’s commitment to provide a fully open payments platform for travel,” the firm said.

Maria Neamoniti, passenger services system manager at AEGEAN, one of the airlines that partnered on the creation of XPP, said:

“Being part of the creation of the Marketplace Catalog has been a great experience for AEGEAN.

“Using the tool, we were able to easily find and compare payment connections, making it much simpler to choose the right options for new markets and different needs.

“This will help us improve how our payments work and bring new payment options to our passengers faster, making their travel experience even better.”

Payment companies that offer relevant capabilities are now able to connect with newly available APIs, Outpayce claiming to have reduced integration timelines by a factor of ten.

Simplified integration means new capabilities can be rapidly added to the marketplace catalogue.

Outpayce’s XPP marketplace, initially available to its airline customers, currently displays hundreds of payment partners across the world.

The company plans to expand the number of partners, services, and products covered by the marketplace in upcoming months.