AirPlus International
AirPlus International is a global provider of business travel payment solutions for corporations. Many products are offered to support business travel payment, accounting, and analysis functions. Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH shareholders are Bayerische Landesbank and Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
Company history
The company’s tradition began with the Air Travel Card (distributed by Lufthansa), which was the first credit card ever issued in the year 1986 now known as the Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP), this airline industry payment platform is utilitzed by AirPlus and accepted by > 220 airlines worldwide.
Timeline
- 1986: Eleven airlines founded AirPlus Limited Card Services
- 1989: AirPlus Servicekarten GmbH is founded with 10 staff members at the time.
- 1990: The AirPlus UATP card is issued as a form of payment for plane tickets purchased for business travel. Numbers begin with 1220.
- 1992: The AirPlus Eurocard is issued in a co-branding arrangement with Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank to capture all T&E spend.
- 1993: The AirPlus VISA Card is issued in a co-branding arrangement with Bayerische Landesbank. making AirPlus the first company to issue a pair of cards (one for air, one for other travel expenses) for frequent travelers,.
- 1994: AirPlus began acquiring VISA contracted merchants. The Direct Marketing Logistics division is formed.
- 1998: The Card Program Management division is founded with the mission of developing and implementing concepts for customer card systems.
- 1999: CommuniGate Kommunikationsservice GmbH, founded as a joint venture by Lufthansa AirPlus and Bayern Card-Services, opened for business. The focus of CommuniGate’s activities was to provide support for holders of the Lufthansa Card, introduced in January 1999.
- 2000: The AirPlus International brand name is introduced.
- 2001: Spin-off of the eProcurement division (GSE transactions) together with Deutsche Post eBusiness GmbH to trimondo GmbH.
- 2002: AirPlus began its cooperation with British Airways. Also, AirPlus International Inc based in New York is founded, as is AirPlus International Ltd. in London .
- 2003: AirPlus International AG is founded with headquarters in Zurich. The airline partnership with U.S. carrier Continental Airlines is announced. Regional headquarters are opened in Hong Kong.
- 2004: Cooperation with Dresdner Bank. Takeover of Dresdner Bank’s Corporate Card System with approx. 18,000 lodged and corporate cards.
- 2005: Offering AirPlus products in 28 countries. Cooperation with the two leading car rental agencies AVIS and Europcar.
- 2006: Independent provider of credit cards for on the road. Partnership with the China Merchants Bank. Payment solution for the road charge in Germany (Road Account)
- 2007: Cooperation for payment solutions in the Business-Travel-Management in Asia with the Korea Exchange Bank and the United Overseas Bank. Implementation of a global payment solution for the climate protection contributions.
- 2008: Offering AirPlus products in over 50 countries. Cooperation with Air China. Foundation of a subsidiary in Shanghai.
Locations
Headquarters: Neu-Isenburg, Germany
Regional offices: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Dubai, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, USA.
Products
Products offered:
- AirPlus Company Account: A central bill account with which a company’s travel expenses are billed.
- AirPlus Corporate Cards: Company employees receive a co-branded credit card (i.e. MasterCard) with which travel and entertainment expenses are billed.
- AirPlus Information Manager: An analysis tool for a company's travel expense management. Capturing the complete incoming data from the AirPlus Company Account and the AirPlus Corporate Cards with the ability to capture from other sources as well. This data is recorded, analyzed, and provided to the customer in their desired format
Data and Details
- Shareholders: Bayerische Landesbank, Deutsche Lufthansa AG
- Commercial Register: Offenbach/Main District Court, HRB 8119
- Management: Patrick W. Diemer and Klaus Busch
- Supervisory Board Chairman: Stephan Gemkow, Deutsche Lufthansa AG
- Total invoicing volume (2008): €18.1 billion
- Transactions processed (2008): 102 million
- Number of credit cards: 1,048,000
- Number of customers: >32,000 corporate customers (worldwide)
- Employees: over 820
External links