Pay later platform Affirm has launched a partnership with airline-owned network UATP.
The collaboration, announced Thursday (May 1), allows merchants on the UATP network — which include airlines, rail carriers and travel agencies — to offer customers Affirm’s pay-over-time plans.
“Travel is 10% of all global spend — and it can be expensive and stressful. But legacy credit options add to the hassle with hidden costs and complexity,” Max Levchin, Affirm’s founder and CEO, said in a news release.
“People deserve better, and this partnership with UATP is going to deliver just that: the transparent, flexible payment options Affirm stands for, available as a turn-key option to top travel brands.”
The release noted that travelers are increasingly using Affirm to fund their trips, with the company’s travel and ticketing business growing 40% last year.
Affirm’s deal with UATP is part of a string of arrangements the company has with travel sector firms. For example, Affirm announced late last year that it was expanding its partnership with travel platform Priceline. In August, Hotels.com added Affirm’s pay-later solution to its platform.
These partnerships are happening at a moment when several companies in the travel sector are reporting reduced consumer demand.
For example, American Airlines told investors last week that it was withdrawing its full-year guidance due to persistent softness in domestic demand and larger economic headwinds.
“We’re in a challenging economic environment which has had a significant impact on the industry,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said on the company’s quarterly earnings call. He added that the positive momentum seen at the end of 2024 vanished quickly in 2025.
Delta Air Lines said earlier this month that its results remained “solid” amid broad economic uncertainty, although the earnings were different from what the company anticipated at the start of the year.
“Coming into 2025, we were positioned for another year of strong growth,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “However, given broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled.”
The situation is similar in Europe, with airlines such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic all reporting a drop in bookings for trips to the U.S. because of uncertainty around American border policy, tariffs and the larger economy.
