New payments data shows favourite travel destinations for Irish

The number of Aer Lingus flights booked through Revolut Pay or with a Revolut card rose 22% in the first quarter of 2024

People relaxing and having fun on the beach of Salou, Spain. Photograph: iStock

Spain, Portugal and France are set to be the top foreign destinations for Irish people seeking out some summer sun, according to new data from fintech Revolut.

The company compiled the data from spending on its one-click Revolut Pay service with Aer Lingus. It found the Canary Islands also featured in the top 10 destinations for July and August, with US cities New York, Chicago, Boston and Orlando also popular.

According to Aer Lingus, the number of flights booked through Revolut Pay or using a Revolut card rose 22 per cent in the first quarter of the year when compared with the same period in 2023. Month on month, that figure rose 277 per cent between December and January, the airline said.

“Aer Lingus is proud to have become the first airline in the world to offer Revolut Pay as a payment option, which offers customers a seamless one-click checkout experience,” said Susanne Carberry, chief customer officer at Aer Lingus.

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The payment system was introduced to the Irish market in September 2022, with Aer Lingus officially adopting it as a payment method in 2024. It allows shoppers to approve payments on a website in their Revolut app rather than inputting payment information, bringing the transaction process to 10 seconds or less.

“It’s been brilliant to see how Revolut Pay’s simplified checkout experience has helped so many more Aer Lingus customers book their dream destination, in what we expect to be a record-breaking travel season for Revolut users,” said Alex Codina, Revolut’s general manager of Revolut’s merchant acquiring.

Revolut Pay has been used by more than 3,000 Irish merchants to accept payments, Revolut said, with the airline among several “household names” that use it in Ireland.

The move is part of Revolut’s push to get more of the travel business, with the company introducing new services such as travel insurance and e-Sims for data while overseas.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist