What is the difference between ARC and BSP?

A US agency sends its sales report to ARC every Tuesday by 1:59 p.m. Eastern. An agency in London or Singapore does the same job through IATA's BSP. Both systems collect what agencies sold and pay the airlines, so each agency settles once a period with every carrier at the same time. Both names come up in airline contracts and debit memos, so it helps to know which is which.

What is ARC?

The Airlines Reporting Corporation is an airline-owned company based in Arlington, Virginia. It accredits travel agencies located in the US and settles their airline sales, and it also sells data and technology services. Seven US and Canadian airlines own it.

For a US agency, ARC accreditation is what lets you issue airline tickets through a GDS. Every ticket, refund and exchange then appears in ARC's Interactive Agent Reporting system, or IAR, where your team reviews the week and authorizes the report.

What is BSP?

The Billing and Settlement Plan is IATA's framework for reporting and settling sales between airlines and IATA-accredited agents. IATA counts more than 400 participating airlines and more than 59,000 accredited agents, with a 99.99 percent on-time settlement rate.

BSPs run country by country, and some cover several countries. Each BSP publishes its own calendar of billing periods and remittance dates. Agents report and pay one net amount to the BSP, which pays each airline. The work happens in BSPlink, IATA's web platform for billing, reporting and messages with airlines.

How do ARC and BSP compare?

The idea is the same in both. One report replaces a separate settlement with every airline, and one payment covers the period.

What does the ARC week look like?

The week runs Monday to Sunday. Each report is named by its Sunday, the period ending date (PED).

Voids have their own clock. A ticket issued through a GDS can be voided or changed in IAR until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on the next business day. A transaction added by hand in IAR can be voided until 11:59 p.m. Eastern the same day. Holidays move the deadline, and our guides on a missed report and holiday voids list the dates.

Where does IATAN fit?

IATAN is IATA's network for the US. It has accredited US travel agencies and professionals since 1977. An IATAN-accredited agency appears on IATA CheckACode and the IATA Agency List, which suppliers outside the airlines use to confirm you're a real agency. IATAN also issues the IATA/IATAN ID card, the industry's credential for individual travel professionals.

Keep the two apart in your head. IATAN says who you are to the wider industry. ARC is where your airline tickets are reported and paid.

When does a US agency deal with BSP?

When it has a location outside the US. Accreditation follows where the agency sits, so an office in Canada or Mexico reports through that country's BSP under IATA accreditation, on that BSP's calendar. Your US locations stay with ARC.

If you open an office abroad, plan for two closes. Each system has its own deadlines and its own reporting tool, so give each one an owner and a checklist.

How are airline orders settled?

Both systems are adapting to airline orders, the record that replaces the ticket in modern airline retailing. In the US, ARC settles orders through ARC Connex Orders. We explain how that works in our guide to airline orders.

Common questions