The Eurodistribution platform is a new member of IATA's ICH.

The Eurodistribution platform through its European AOC carrier Euroairlines (Q4-291) is a new ICH member of IATA, the term "ICH Clearing House" refers to the IATA BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan) Clearing House, which is a system used by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to facilitate the billing and payment processing between airlines and travel agents.

The ICH Clearing House is responsible for handling funds between airlines and travel agents, ensuring that payments are made efficiently and accurately. Travel agents remit their payments through the BSP to the ICH, and then the ICH distributes the funds to the airlines concerned. This simplifies the billing process and ensures that airlines receive revenue in a timely manner.

IATA forms a select club of ICH-enabled airlines around the world, which need to be audited and complete all IATA requirements in order to become a member of the clearing house. The 5 points on which the benefits of ICH membership are based are:

Invoicing and settlement: The ICH Clearing House is a key component of the IATA BSP system. It facilitates the invoicing and settlement of transactions between airlines and travel agents. This includes ticketing, collection of funds from travel agents and distribution of payments to airlines.

Financial security: The ICH Clearing House plays an important role in ensuring the financial security of transactions between the parties involved. It helps reduce the risk of non-compliance and ensures that travel agents meet their financial obligations to airlines.

Regulations and standards: IATA sets regulations and standards that govern the operation of the ICH Clearing House and the BSP system as a whole. This includes guidelines for invoicing, account reconciliation and dispute resolution.

Settlement process: The settlement process in the ICH Clearing House involves travel agencies remitting funds collected from ticket sales through the BSP. The ICH then verifies and reconciles these transactions, ensuring that the funds are correctly distributed to the airlines. Efficiency and cost reduction: The use of the ICH Clearing House and the IATA BSP system helps to improve efficiency in the check-in and settlement process, which in turn reduces operating costs for both airlines and travel agents.

The ICH operates on the basis of a well-defined process:

Ticket Sales: Travel agents sell airline tickets to passengers and collect the corresponding money.

Remittance of Funds: Travel agents remit the funds collected to the ICH through the IATA BSP system. This is done at regular intervals.

Payment Distribution: Once transactions are reconciled, the ICH distributes funds to airlines based on the sales made by each travel agency.

Reporting and Regulation: The ICH provides detailed reports to airlines and travel agencies, which assists in financial decision making and account management.

In short, IATA's ICH Clearing House plays a vital role in simplifying and standardising financial transactions in the aviation industry. It facilitates invoicing, account reconciliation and payment distribution, which in turn improves efficiency and financial security in the industry.

Antonio López Lázaro, CEO of Euroairlines Group says: "Our roadmap has always been to have the ICH, today is a day in which we fulfil part of that strategy of being able to bring value both to the agencies and to the more than 20 airlines with which we have Interline and Codeshare. Because IATA subjects airlines wishing to become members of the clearing house to extensive studies and audits. And it is clear that Euroairlines meets all the necessary requirements with IATA to be part of this select club of airlines in the world".

Ignacio Rodriguez Torres, CEO of Eurodistribution concludes: "There are many airlines in the world that would like to have ICH, we are happy to be able to share it as part of the value we bring to our customers and the travel agency ecosystem. IATA is certainly very strict with the airlines that want to join the IATA clearinghouse and the standards airlines have to meet are high. So we are proud to be able to announce this news to the industry as part of our evolution".