Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Sky-high payments costs
Aerospace | Payments
November 15, 2022 – Airlines lose $20 billion annually—3 percent of their annual revenue—in costs related to payments from airline booking transactions, largely due to the high use of credit cards. A recent report by McKinsey partner Riccardo Boin and coauthors highlights how innovation in payments could help airlines to improve customer experience, grow an additional $14 billion in value, and decrease costs.
To read the report, see “Airline retailing: How payment innovation can improve the bottom line,” September 9, 2022.
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Visual form
Value-bridge chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is organized around airline retailing economics, with the reader moving from current payment-related losses to the additional value that payment innovation could unlock. The reading order is from cost drag into upside opportunity.
What is being compared
It compares the annual costs airlines absorb from booking-payment transactions with the value that could be created through improved payment innovation and fuller airline retailing potential.
Measurement system
The page uses dollars, specifically annual cost and annual value creation. The chart compares existing losses, incremental value, and the broader retailing opportunity in the same financial frame.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The main internal pieces are the current-cost baseline, the innovation-driven value uplift, and the larger total retailing-potential marker. The structure is built to show that payments are both a cost problem and a growth lever.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart shows that airline payments are a large drag today but also one of the clearest places to recover value. The graphic is set up so the payment cost burden and the value-creation upside sit in direct visual tension.
Key standout values or extremes
The page highlights 20 billion dollars in annual booking-transaction payment costs for airlines, 14 billion dollars in additional value that better payments could create, and a full airline-retailing potential of 40 billion dollars.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.