Southwest Airlines has tapped US-based payment technology solutions company MOST to power its inflight retail experience. The partnership seeks to provide new flexibility for onboard sales and to boost the inflight retail experience for Southwest Airlines’ customers.

According to the official press release, most.Onthego aims to combine product management, payment hardware solutions, and payment processing capabilities in a single product that strives to enhance the passenger experience. To extend this new offering, MOST is leveraging its modular application architecture that enables its partners to design new retail experiences for their target customers. Moreover, its clients can use the MOST ecosystem to integrate features such as shopping carts, payment processing, and onboard product management.

When commenting on this new partnership, a representative from Southwest Airlines pointed out that this joint venture was born out of a necessity to implement a new inflight retail process that would ease workloads, improve data collection, and reduce the time for each transaction. More about the new inflight payment solution When it comes to the payment hardware introduced following the new partnership, the most.Onthego solution is a combination of an iPad Mini 6 and a payment device that features a single point of charge. The most.Onthego solution can accept credit and debit card payments via NFC and contactless taps (Apple and Google Pay included), swipe or smart chip.

The inflight payment transactions are handled via the most.Pay payment gateway, which enables the transmission of offline payments for processing. Moreover, the most.Retail connected management architecture can be used for data analytics and product management, and it can also reportedly be relayed in near real-time to back-office systems. MOST’s modular suite of products and services is specifically designed for the mobility sector.

Among its offering are capabilities such as software retail platforms, payment gateways, mobile payment peripherals, and recommendation tools. According to experts, the merging of consumer behaviour and modern technology is giving rise to innovative payment experiences. The challenge for the industry lies in delivering a smooth and secure payment experience that not only meets customer expectations but also maximises profitability.

The new solution developed as a result of the partnership between Southwest Airlines and MOST is a reflection of the market demand for new customer-centric payment offerings. More to this point, in the last few years, the demand for new technologies in payment has been on the rise. Consequently, in the aftermath of the pandemic, as travelling surged once again, the travel industry has also faced the need to provide payment solutions that prioritise the needs and preferences of customers.

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