Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP)

IATA Billing and settlement plan (BSP)

A BSP is the central point through which data and funds flow between travel agents and airlines.Instead of every agent having an individual relationship with every airline,all of the information is consolidated through the BSP

Agents make one single payment to the BSP(remittance) covering sales on all BSP airlines. The BSP makes one consolidated payment to each airline,covering sales made by all agents in the country/region

Agents are provided with a range of electronic ticket numbers to be used for sales on any airline

BSP working process for Agents

1. Preparation to sell on behalf of airlines. - before an agent can begin selling on behalf of airlines, the following must take place

• A range of electronic ticket numbers are assigned to the agent
• the airline assigns ticketing authority to the agent to allow the issue of E-TKT

2. Reporting by agents the agent reports all sales and refunds at the end of the reporting period.This is done electronically through BSP link.All transactions are forwarded to a central BSP data processing center or DPC.

Processing By BSP

The data processing center

1. Captures the tickets and refunds information from data files that have been transmitted by the GDS or the other automatic system like the BSP link.
2. Processes all relevant data and produce an agents billing analysis for each agent.This analysis is compiled from the information of each billing period.
3. It forwards the statement of sales made by each agent to each BSP airline.
4. Monitors ETKT and provide continuous stock whenever necessary.

Payment

1. The agent makes just one payment covering all the BSP transactions for that billing period for all BSP airlines.
2. The BSP preffered method of payment is by direct debit

Follow up

1. The accounting department of each airline audits the incoming data and addresses the debit/credit transactions to agents as necessary.