Fact Sheet - IATA Clearing House

• Interline agreements make it possible for passengers and freight-shippers to purchase multi-sector journeys involving transportation on any number of different airlines
• The IATA Clearing House enables the world's airlines and airline-associated companies to settle their interline billings securely, efficiently and on-time
• ICH reduces hundreds of bilateral, multi-currency transactions to one single payable or receivable amount 
• More than 450 airlines and associates settle their accounts on a weekly basis
• 70% of these are settled through the netting process
  • Requiring no movement of funds
  • Assuring high credit and
  • Currency protection
• Each participant is able to collect its dues promptly from the ticketing airline and airline-associated companies
• The IATA Clearing House settles over US$40 billion in interline and service transactions each year 
• In 2009 the average period between interline billing transaction and its settlement was 12 days
• IATA’s financial systems processed over US$275 billion during 2009
  • IATA Clearing House—US$40 billion
  • IATA Currency Clearing Service — US$23.3 billion
  • Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) — US$191 billion
  • Cargo Account Settlement Systems (CASS) — US$20 billion*
  • Other – US$1 billion

* The figure is preliminary

Updated: February 2010