ARC Successfully Completes Blockchain PoC With United Airlines and Blockskye

As an industry connector, ARC continuously examines new technologies that can generate efficiency and value for the global air travel community. ARC is pleased to announce the successful completion of a joint proof of concept (PoC) to determine the viability of using blockchain technology, with the ARC settlement system, to facilitate the reporting and settlement of United Airlines tickets. To enable the proof of concept, ARC partnered with Blockskye, a leader in providing blockchain solutions to the travel and entertainment industries.

“ARC is committed to leading the air travel industry in the exploration of new technologies that have the potential to deliver options and business value to the global air travel community. We are actively working to explore blockchain’s potential across all of ARC’s product offerings, especially our world-class settlement system,” said ARC’s Vice President and Chief Information Officer Dickie Oliver. “In the case of direct or indirect ticket sales, we believe blockchain has the potential to provide a secure, distributed and immutable transaction record that will improve upon business processes that exist today.”

To learn more about the proof of concept and its applications to air travel, read the full article here.

Tools and Resources Available to Your Airline

As an ARC participating airline, you have access to a wealth of resources to help you do business with ARC and the agency community. As we start the new year, we want to highlight several of the tools and resources available to you. Many of these can be accessed through My ARC.

  • Airline Account Manager List – All participating airlines have a dedicated account manager who is available to answer all your questions and guide you through your participation with ARC. If you are not familiar with your designated account manager, you can find their contact information on this list.

  • Airline Ancillary Matrix – Looking for one place to review and compare current ancillary products available from each airline via their global distribution system (GDS) partners? ARC is pleased to offer the Airline Ancillary Matrix as a central reference tool to summarize ancillary products available for ARC's participating airlines.

  • Carrier Dashboard – The Carrier Dashboard is a valuable resource for airlines. Within the dashboard, you will be able to use the Carrier Performance tab to review your airlines’ processing statistics by calendar month, for the past three years plus the current year to date. On the “Agency” tab, you can search for all ARC agencies using their ARC Number or name. Once populated, you will find key information such as agency contact details, ownership, financial instrument and status information. On the Notifications tab, you can find notifications (previously known as bulletins) related to agency accreditation.

  • The Latest – Read articles about ARC’s latest initiatives, research, technology updates and more on ARC’s blog, The Latest.

  • ARC Newsroom – ARC is committed to providing deep insights into travel industry news, data and trends. In the ARC Newsroom, you can find all current and past press releases and media mentions.

  • ARC System Status – ARC continually monitors the status of arccorp.com and related services. If a service is interrupted or is temporarily down for maintenance, an alert is posted on the ARC System Status Dashboard. If you wish to receive an email alert for specific services (or for all services), subscribe here.

In addition to these highlighted tools and resources, there are several others that are located on arccorp.com and My ARC. If you have any questions, please contact the Airline Help Desk at ahd@arccorp.com.

2019 Airline Education Program

ARC’s Airline Education Program is designed to provide airlines with information on industry trends and ARC initiatives. This program is included with your ARC participation, and all recorded webinars and videos are located on My ARC, under “Resources.” All webinars are typically hosted on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 1–2 p.m. unless otherwise stated. ARC’s 2018 webinars covered key topics such as NDC and ONE Order updates, Mastercard dispute resolution initiatives, ARC’s area bank consolidation, debit memo trends and more.

Based on feedback from our airline partners, ARC’s 2019 webinars will include the following topics:

  • Understanding Refunds and Exchanges
  • Airline Town Hall
  • ARC 101
  • ARC Agency Models
  • ARC’s Data Capabilities
  • Updates on Fraud
  • ARC Transformation

If there are any topics you would like ARC to cover, please contact Crystal Montague, ARC’s manager of airline participation and customer experience, at cmontague@arccorp.com.

Updated Manual for Carriers Is Now Available

ARC’s Manual for Carriers provides valuable information on ARC’s operational processes. Included in the manual, you will find information related to fraud, Memo Manager, travel agency accreditation and more. To access to the manual, sign in to My ARC; the Manual for Carriers is located under “Resources.”

Airline Tip: 2019 Area Settlement Plan Processing Schedule

For ARC processing purposes, the calendar year is divided into four quarters. The first and second months of each quarter contain four processing weeks, and the third month has five weeks. To assist in managing your accounting processes, ARC publishes an area settlement plan (ASP) processing schedule every year. This schedule includes the ARC processing weeks for the year, a carrier accounting (CAT) file output schedule and a weekly disbursement schedule.


The schedule highlights the impact that certain holidays have on the CAT file. For instance, for holidays that fall on a Monday or Tuesday, Cycle 6 CAT files will be null, and Friday and Saturday transactions will be included in Cycle 7. Sunday transactions, normally output in Cycle 7, will be output in Cycle 1 of the next processing week.

To download the schedule, click here.

Upcoming Webinar: ARC 101

Join us February 27 at 1 p.m. for a webinar on how ARC’s solutions help facilitate airline distribution. This course is ideal for anyone new to ARC, or anyone who has worked with ARC for years and needs a refresher on ARC’s latest initiatives. We’ll cover key topics, including how the settlement process works, managing memos, understanding airline reports, fraud resources and more.

Register Now