Outpayce & Riskified launch airline fraud protection

Riskified has partnered with Outpayce from Amadeus to offer fraud prevention and chargeback protection for airlines and travel merchants. The integration will be available to airlines worldwide.

The deal adds Riskified's fraud screening and chargeback guarantee model to Outpayce's travel payments platform, which airlines and other travel businesses use to manage payment flows. It also makes Riskified the first chargeback guarantee provider in Outpayce's ecosystem.

The partnership targets a costly area of the travel market. Airline bookings often involve high ticket values and card-not-present payments, leaving carriers exposed to disputed transactions, manual review costs and lost sales when legitimate bookings are rejected.

One Riskified analysis found that flight bookings over the past year were 14% riskier than in the previous year. The increase comes as airlines contend with shifting booking patterns and payment preferences, while fraud tactics continue to evolve.

A major Asia-Pacific international airline is set to become the first merchant to use the integration in 2026. The initial deployment is intended to support broader adoption among other airlines and travel merchants.

Travel focus

Outpayce, part of the Amadeus group, focuses on payment services for the travel sector. Its platform is designed to help airlines and travel merchants manage payment processing throughout the booking journey, including different payment methods and markets.

By adding Riskified's service, Outpayce aims to give airline clients another way to manage fraud risk at checkout. The model combines transaction assessment with a guarantee covering certain chargebacks, shifting some financial exposure away from merchants.

The service is relevant for airlines with different risk profiles, but may be particularly useful in markets with high chargeback volumes. In those cases, disputed card payments can create both direct financial losses and administrative burdens.

The integration is also intended to reduce the need for manual reviews. Airlines often rely on staff to inspect flagged transactions, a process that can slow approvals and raise labour costs.

Executive views

Vasken Tokatlian outlined Outpayce's view of the partnership.

"Our innovation-first collaboration with Riskified is a major step forward in helping airlines combat fraud more effectively," said Vasken Tokatlian, VP Partnerships, Outpayce from Amadeus.

"By integrating Riskified into Outpayce's ecosystem, we are expanding the choice available to airlines worldwide-equipping them with additional tools to reduce fraud losses, lower operational costs, and deliver seamless, secure payment experiences," Tokatlian added.

Riskified presented the partnership as a way to support airline growth while limiting payment risk.

"By partnering with Outpayce from Amadeus, we are giving airlines the confidence to grow their business, secure in the knowledge that every transaction is protected from fraud," said Max Meister Admoni, Global Head of Partnerships, Riskified.

Industry pressure

Fraud management has become a growing concern for airlines as more bookings move through digital channels and card-not-present transactions remain central to online travel sales. The challenge is not only preventing fraud, but also avoiding false declines, where genuine customers are turned away.

This creates a trade-off between security and conversion. A stricter approach may block more fraudulent attempts, but it can also reduce completed bookings if legitimate travellers are wrongly rejected. Providers in this market argue that better data analysis can help merchants approve more genuine transactions while limiting fraud exposure.

Travel has long carried particular risks because bookings can be resold, changed or used quickly after purchase. According to the companies, fraudsters have also targeted weaknesses in airline policies and payment controls.

The partnership reflects a broader push by travel payment providers to combine payment orchestration with specialist fraud tools, rather than leaving airlines to assemble separate systems. For carriers operating across multiple regions, that could reduce the complexity of managing different fraud rules, payment providers and operational processes.

Outpayce and Riskified said their combined reach across airlines, online travel agencies, transport providers, tour operators and event businesses gives them access to a large pool of transaction data linked to travel purchases. They said this information can be used to improve fraud detection and identity assessment for flight bookings.

The first airline launch in Asia-Pacific will be an early test of whether that model can cut fraud losses without reducing approval rates for genuine customers.