Checkout.com has landed a series of high-profile payment processing contracts with major European airlines, in a move that cements the London-based fintech's ambitions in the travel and hospitality sector. Sources familiar with the deals confirmed that IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, is among the new clients, alongside two other carriers that have not yet been publicly named. The contracts are understood to cover card acquiring, fraud prevention, and multi-currency settlement across dozens of markets.

The deals come as Checkout.com intensifies efforts to diversify its merchant base beyond its traditional stronghold in digital commerce and gaming. CEO Guillaume Pousaz told the Financial Times that the airline sector represented a £140 billion annual payments opportunity in Europe alone, and that legacy processors had failed to deliver the real-time authorisation rates and dynamic currency conversion that carriers increasingly demanded. Checkout.com's proprietary technology stack, which processes transactions end-to-end without relying on third-party gateways, reportedly delivers authorisation rates 6% to 8% higher than incumbent acquirers.

The expansion coincides with a broader reshuffling of the UK acquiring market. Worldpay's separation from FIS has created uncertainty among large merchants, while Adyen and Stripe continue to compete aggressively for enterprise accounts. Checkout.com, which was valued at £9 billion during its last funding round, has been under pressure to demonstrate revenue growth following a voluntary valuation reduction in 2023. Industry analysts at Redburn Atlantic said the airline wins could add an estimated £45 million to £60 million in annualised processing revenue.