Seven brands, four countries, one platform: How Brightsun Travel unified global travel payments with Airwallex

Brightsun Travel — a £480m, 40-year-old travel group operating across seven brands and four countries — consolidated its entire financial operation onto Airwallex. Customer collections, supplier payments, internal spend, FX and treasury now run through one connected platform, delivering a 25% improvement in commercial card acceptance, ~45% more in virtual card rebates, and 30% savings in annual acquiring costs.

Eddie Dsouza

CFO, Brightsun Travel UK

"At Brightsun, our business is complex, spanning seven brands with diverse global needs — and Airwallex has delivered exactly what we required. As a 40-year business, we value partners who truly understand us, and they've helped us move forward with confidence. From a UK and EU global contract to expansion into the UAE and support for India, their capability has been impressive. Their all-in-one platform for issuing, acquiring, FX, and spend approvals has simplified our operations significantly."

The challenge

Across seven brands and four countries, Brightsun was running a patchwork of legacy providers for acquiring, issuing, banking and spend — each with its own platform, processes and reporting. Finance teams spent hours manually reconciling payments across disconnected systems, around three hours per day for acquiring alone. POS ran through one gateway while online payments ran through another, creating what CFO Eddie Dsouza described as a "reconciliation nightmare." Virtual cards and physical cards were managed separately across 32 different BINs, spend approvals lived in email and Teams, and treasury visibility across the group was fragmented by account and entity.

The business needed one platform that could connect the full money lifecycle — without rebuilding around it.

The solution

One connected platform for the full money lifecycle

Brightsun adopted Airwallex to handle customer collections, supplier payments, internal spend, FX and cash management on one connected platform. Airwallex now sits behind each stage, so money moves from booking to payout and treasury without hitting the limits of separate providers.

Omnichannel acquiring through one provider and one API

Airwallex provides Brightsun with an omnichannel acquiring solution, bringing web, POS, MOTO and payment links together through one provider and one API — removing disconnected tools, third-party workarounds and redirect flows. Multi-currency payment acceptance across every channel is now managed from one platform.

API-connected workflows inside Brightsun's systems

Airwallex is connected to Brightsun's booking system via API, allowing payment links and virtual cards to be generated directly from Brightsun's own internal tools. Teams move faster without switching between platforms, and reconciliation happens automatically.

Centralised spend controls and improved issuing support

Virtual cards, company cards, spend controls and AI-native approval workflows are now in one place. Virtual card OTP support reduces failed payments and unlocks additional revenue, while policy-based approvals give finance clear oversight of company spend.

A single view of funds across brands and countries

Brightsun can now aggregate and manage funds from one dashboard across all brands, entities and markets — replacing separate logins, fragmented funding flows and manual treasury management with one group-wide view.

Deepak Nangla

Managing Director, Brightsun Travel UK

"We were looking for a platform that could support the full lifecycle of travel payments, from customer collections through to supplier and operational spend. Airwallex stood out because it could bring those workflows together in one place and connect directly into how our teams already work."

The results

25% improvement in commercial card acceptance

The BIN check redirect that had been creating friction at checkout is gone. Commercial card payments now process directly through one provider, contributing to a 25% improvement in payment success rates for commercial cards.

30% reduction in acquiring costs

Moving to Airwallex is expected to save Brightsun 30% annually in acquiring costs, improving unit economics on every booking.

~45% more in virtual card rebates

With the new issuing setup — and OTP support now in place — Brightsun expects to generate around 45% more in annual virtual card rebates than with its previous provider.

20 hours saved per week for the finance team

By eliminating disconnected tools and connecting acquiring directly into Brightsun's systems via API, Airwallex has simplified reconciliation, improved reporting visibility and cut manual finance work.

Eddie Dsouza

CFO, Brightsun Travel UK

"Airwallex's end-to-end solution enables us to have everything we require in one central place. It saves our finance team of 10 people 20 hours per week, enabling them to focus on more important, business-critical tasks."

One view of the full money lifecycle

Collections, supplier payments, spend and treasury now run through one platform across every brand, entity and market. Separate logins, manual handoffs and reconciliation gaps are gone — and Brightsun's finance team manages cash group-wide instead of account by account.