Summary:
- Air Transat boosts payment performance with DLX Pay, recovering 6.6% of failed transactions through intelligent retry capabilities.
- Platform demonstrates rapid scalability, processing $400m+ in three months and enabling fast PSP onboarding.
- Real-time insights, no-code configuration and dynamic routing enhance operational efficiency, fraud control and conversion rates.
Since going live with DLX Pay, Air Transat has rapidly transformed its payment operations – capturing 6.6% of failed transactions through intelligent, dynamic retry capabilities, successfully onboarded a new payment service provider (PSP) in time for go-live to demonstrate the platform’s agility, and proving DLX Pay’s scalability by processing over $400 million in transactions within the first three months of deployment.
Following the launch of DLX Pay in 2025, Air Transat became the first airline to sign up and go-live with it just months later. A modular, next-generation payment platform designed to improve payment performance and agility, it strengthens operational resilience and delivers greater control to airlines to ultimately enhance the end-to-end customer experience while increasing conversion and revenue opportunities.
The challenge
Like many airlines across the globe, Air Transat faced the complexity of managing payments across multiple markets, currencies, and payment methods. Combined with the need to integrate with numerous PSPs, typically at high costs, created a significant challenge. Legacy technology tends to lack the flexibility to quickly onboard new providers, leading to lengthy delivery cycles driving up costs. Additionally, Air Transat experienced limited retry capabilities for failed transactions, restricted visibility of controls and analytics, and a need to support local payment preferences while simultaneously maintaining robust fraud controls.
Solution & results
To tackle these challenges, Air Transat implemented DLX Pay for greater control over its payment processes which improved conversion rates, reduced costs, system stability and provided valuable insights through advanced reporting. DLX Pay proved its scalability from the outset, processing over US$400 million in the first 3 months.
- Dynamic retries capturing lost revenue: DLX Pay introduced intelligent retry capabilities that were previously unavailable to Air Transat. Over the last three months, this functionality has automatically recovered 6.6% of declined sales by intelligently retrying soft declines from one PSP to be retried with an alternative. This capability works to prevent Air Transat from losing revenue due to failed transactions.
- No code configuration: With DLX Pay’s configurator and insights dashboard, Air Transat can identify suspected fraudulent activity and optimise fraud prevention and authentication through rule-based flows that trigger appropriate counter-measures. Air Transat can make changes in production via the self-service configuration portal without code changes.
- Rapid onboarding new PSPs for faster time to market: With 50+ PSPs already available, DLX Pay drastically accelerates the onboarding of new payment methods and integrations. What previously took months now takes a matter of weeks, meaning reduced complexity and cost and the ability to confidently engage with new and innovative payment methods. The rapid onboarding of new PSPs was proven at launch when DLX Pay was activated and, at the same time, the platform seamlessly added a new PSP in the background, which went live alongside DLX Pay.
- More actionable insights, more readily available: Access to real-time insights in the DLX Pay Configurator, DLX Pay’s dedicated no-code dashboard, offers a consolidated view of payment performance across providers and markets. This enhanced visibility has shifted Air Transat’s approach to managing payments from a reactive function to a proactive, data-driven strategy leading to continuous optimisation and informed decision-making. Additionally, Air Transat can use the DLX Pay Configurator to implement new payment routing rules or adjust existing ones without any development resources. Through the insight portal, Air Transat can easily identify fraudulent transactions and associated amounts. Likewise, the dashboard delivers data and analytics that are not available from PSPs alone, enabling deeper analysis and more effective troubleshooting.
Future capabilities & roadmap
Building on the initial success, Air Transat and Datalex have a strong roadmap in place for the coming 12 months. Key areas of focus which can be achieved with minimal investment:
- Adding further Forms of Payments and exploring new Payment Connectors.
- Evolving the usage of Dynamic Routing to further optimise costs.
- Driving down fraud levels using Dynamic Routing driven by insights.
- Exploring Network Tokens to improve authorisation rates.
Powering the future of airline payment orchestration
Activating DLX Pay has transformed Air Transat’s payment operations, driven improved performance and restored control of its payment ecosystem, all while reducing complexities and operational costs. With enhanced visibility, intelligent retry and routing capabilities, and the ability to rapidly onboard new PSPs, Air Transat is positioned to flexibly and continuously respond to evolving customer and market demands. The scalability and future-focus of DLX Pay means Air Transat can continue to deliver a seamless and secure customer experience while being at the forefront of payment innovations.
“DLX Pay has improved significantly the way we manage payments on Air Transat.com, giving us much greater control, flexibility, and visibility,” said Bamba Sissoko, CIO, Air Transat. “Intelligent retry capabilities are helping us recover revenue that was previously lost, while the ability to rapidly onboard new PSPs enables us to optimise costs, increase conversion, and ultimately deliver a seamless booking experience for our passengers.”
Jonathan Rockett, CEO, Datalex, commented: “We developed DLX Pay to address the challenges that airlines face on a day-to-day basis when it comes to payments. Seeing the immediate results achieved by Air Transat after go-live – from revenue recovered from successful retries to rapid scalability – demonstrates the power of an airline-specific payment orchestration platform to drive growth. DLX Pay empowers Air Transat with the control, agility, and insights required to elevate the customer experience and adapt quickly to market changes.”
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