Fraud in the airline industry is an evolving, highly sophisticated threat that spans every customer channel and includes payments and loyalty points fraud, identity theft and ticketing fraud. To better understand how airlines are responding, we spoke with the head of fraud at a major global carrier about the realities of combating fraud at scale. What they shared offered a candid view into the challenges, trade-offs and priorities facing airline fraud teams today.
Legacy challenges and the risks they create
One of the first themes to emerge was the challenge of legacy systems and policies. While airlines have invested heavily in modern digital experiences for their customers, much of the infrastructure that supports global aviation was designed decades ago.
“A lot of the core systems are effectively from the 1960s or 70s,” the head of fraud explained. “They weren’t built for today’s level of connectivity or the types of attacks we’re seeing now.”
Technology is only part of the issue, however. Legacy policies, often written for a very different operating environment, can introduce ambiguity and risk. “When you start investigating incidents, it can be hard to trace where something originated or who authorised it,” they said. “Sometimes the rules themselves are unclear because they were written for aircraft, processes or customer behaviours that no longer exist.”
These gaps can create opportunities for misuse, both accidental and deliberate, and are common across the industry.
Awareness, training and the human element
Given these challenges, the airline takes a layered approach to fraud prevention, starting with awareness and training. Fraud risk today touches almost every customer-facing function.
“We started with frontline staff training, then moved into compliance and regulation, and now it includes fraud prevention, cybersecurity and data privacy,” the airline’s head of fraud said. “Contact centres, retail offices, online bookings, even social media teams – everyone needs to understand the risks.”
Phishing attacks online and the use of social engineering techniques in contact centres are constant threats. Fraudsters exploit human behaviour, tricking people into giving away personal details or attempting to persuade agents to make changes to bookings, transfer loyalty points or bypass controls.
“Fraudsters don’t always attack systems first—they attack people,” they noted. “They’re very good at exploiting trust, urgency and small process gaps.”
Real-time monitoring and evolving threats
Training alone is not enough. With tens of thousands of interactions happening daily, real-time monitoring is critical.
“We monitor activity 24/7,” the head of fraud explained. “If something looks suspicious, we need to act quickly. Often there’s a very small window to intervene before a booking completes or a passenger boards a flight.”
Protecting customer data is central to this effort, particularly as fraud becomes more automated. Advances in technology – especially artificial intelligence – are accelerating attackers’ capabilities to steal personal data at scale.
“It is alarming to see what [fraudsters] can do in seconds using algorithms,” they said. “Most customers don’t realise how much of their personal data is publicly available.”
Loyalty programmes are a prime target. Fraudsters collect names, account details, and other information from social platforms or data breaches, then attempt account takeovers or fraudulent redemptions at scale. “With AI, the scale of potential misuse is frightening,” they warned. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Collaboration across the industry
Another clear message from the conversation was the importance of collaboration. Fraud rarely stops at the boundary of a single airline.
“Fraudsters don’t target one organisation in isolation,” the head of fraud said. “They move across airlines, partners and platforms. Online booking tools and third-party providers can all become entry points.”
Information-sharing through technology platforms, in-person conferences and industry forums, for example, plays a critical role in identifying emerging patterns and preventing repeat attacks. “If we can share intelligence, we can stop the same fraudsters operating at scale across multiple organisations,” they added.
Looking ahead
“These fraudsters are full-time professionals,” they said. “Our job is to make it as difficult as possible and to respond quickly when something happens.” The need to adapt is constant.
As airlines rethink how they defend against fraud in an era of automation and AI, the focus is shifting toward real-time decisioning, shared intelligence and collaboration across organisations and sectors. In this, the telephony channel has a key role to play.
At Smartnumbers, we’ve just onboarded a global airline customer, partnering closely with their fraud leadership to address these exact challenges. We look forward to sharing the insights that emerge as the platform is embedded into day-to-day fraud operations—and how it supports teams in making faster, more informed decisions in an increasingly complex threat environment.
