Angola newest country in Africa to join BSP

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) launched the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) in Angola, effective October 1.

BSP is a system designed to facilitate and simplify the selling, reporting, and remitting procedures of IATA-accredited travel agents, facilitating the engagements between airlines and their distribution partners.

The BSP is a global system with operations in 181 countries and territories, over 40 of which are in Africa and the Middle East.

The system currently serves more than 54,400 travel agencies and 400 participating airlines with an on-time settlement rate of 99.977%. In 2021, IATA’s BSP processed $74.7 billion including $16 billion in refunds.

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Some of the benefits of the BSP are to ensure agents issue one sales report and remit one amount to a central point, airlines receive one settlement covering all agents, simplify and reduce work through the use of electronic ticketing on behalf of all BSP Airlines including agents’ sales that are reported electronically

A BSP is a central point through which data and funds flow between travel agents and airlines. Instead of every agent having an individual relationship with each airline, all of the information is consolidated through the BSP.

Agents make one single payment to the BSP (remittance), covering sales on all BSP Airlines. The BSP makes one consolidated payment to each airline, covering sales made by all agents in the country/region.

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Agents are provided with a range of electronic ticket numbers to be used for sales on any airline.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to support the growth and modernization of aviation across Africa, we have recently launched the BSP in Angola with the support of government and industry stakeholders, enhancing the geographical coverage of the system in support of simple, secure and effective financial solutions for the industry”, said Kamil Alawadhi, Regional Vice-President Africa and the Middle East.

“Effective 1 October 2022, BSP Angola is fully operational for participating airlines and travel agencies in the market. This new operation is a milestone achieved to better assist our industry partners and serves as an additional pathway to growing aviation in Africa”, added Alawadhi.

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Wole Shadare