Q2 2026 · Global report 
Executive summary
Not every airline market carries the same level of fraud exposure, and this quarter the gap widened most in the markets already under the greatest pressure. The clearest example: the average fraud rate across Middle East and Africa’s departure cities more than doubled in a single quarter, from 0.95% in Q1 2026 to 2.03% in Q2 2026 — the largest swing of any region in this report.
Departure cities in the United States, Canada, and Australia and Pacific regions held fraud rates under roughly a tenth of a percent on average again this quarter, well below the global average fraud rate of 0.29% across all 537 qualifying departure cities. Fraud pressure was highest, in descending order, across the Middle East and Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, where a number of individual departure cities posted fraud rates several times that global average.
Note on methodology: Fraud rate here refers to prevented fraud only: bookings denied for a fraud reason before travel occurred. These figures show where fraud-prevention activity concentrated at the point of booking, not where fraud losses actually landed. Full details appear in the Methodology section below.
Because this report breaks fraud exposure down to the departure-city level, airlines can see precisely where booking-stage fraud pressure built this past quarter, and benchmark themselves against areas where longer-standing, more mature prevention practices appear to be keeping the pressure in check.
The Global Top 25 — Q2 2026
The fraud rate on bookings departing from Cairo (CAI) was the highest in the Global Top 25 this quarter, at 6.57%, followed by Accra (ACC) (4.67%) and Tunis (TUN) (4.48%). Cairo’s rise is the largest single-city move in this report: its fraud rate nearly quintupled quarter-over-quarter, from 1.43% in Q1 2026 to 6.57% in Q2 2026, moving it from the 15th-highest fraud rate in the world to the highest in a single quarter.
This also marks a shift from Q1 2026, when the highest fraud rate was on bookings departing from BrasĂlia (BSB) (4.37%), followed by Tunis (4.36%) and SĂŁo Paulo (CGH) (3.61%). Q1’s leaders diverged sharply from there: BrasĂlia’s fraud rate fell 27% quarter-over-quarter (to 3.19%, now 7th) and SĂŁo Paulo’s fell 31% (to 2.48%, now 11th). Tunis was the only Q1 top-three departure city to remain in the top three this quarter, essentially flat at 4.48%.
Accra was the exception — its fraud rate rose 48% quarter-over-quarter (3.16% to 4.67%), enough to make it the second-highest in the world in Q2. Bookings departing from cities in North and West Africa (Cairo, Accra, Tunis, and Casablanca (CMN)) now account for the four highest fraud rates worldwide.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CAI | Egypt | Cairo | 6.57% | +14.5% | â–˛ 14 |
| 2 | ACC | Ghana | Accra | 4.67% | -30.5% | â–˛ 4 |
| 3 | TUN | Tunisia | Tunis | 4.48% | +30.8% | â–Ľ 1 |
| 4 | CMN | Morocco | Casablanca | 4.27% | +102.5% | â–˛ 6 |
| 5 | CGK | Indonesia | Jakarta | 4.18% | +3.0% | â–˛ 4 |
| 6 | CTG | Colombia | Cartagena | 3.20% | -24.1% | â–˛ 1 |
| 7 | BSB | Brazil | Brasilia | 3.19% | +92.0% | â–Ľ 6 |
| 8 | JNB | South Africa | Johannesburg | 2.83% | +56.4% | â–˛ 3 |
| 9 | RUH | Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | 2.77% | +31.6% | â–˛ 40 |
| 10 | AMM | Jordan | Amman | 2.56% | +49.5% | â–˛ 58 |
| 11 | CGH | Brazil | Sao Paulo | 2.48% | +69.0% | â–Ľ 9 |
| 12 | LOS | Nigeria | Lagos | 2.42% | -38.0% | â–˛ 1 |
| 13 | JED | Saudi Arabia | Jeddah | 2.27% | +14.7% | â–˛ 16 |
| 14 | BOG | Colombia | Bogota | 2.26% | -19.4% | â–˛ 9 |
| 15 | MDE | Colombia | Medellin | 2.17% | -19.5% | â–˛ 5 |
| 16 | LIM | Peru | Lima | 2.14% | +15.6% | â–˛ 12 |
| 17 | DMM | Saudi Arabia | Dammam | 2.13% | +173.5% | â–˛ 35 |
| 18 | DEL | India | Delhi | 1.86% | -3.5% | â–˛ 3 |
| 19 | GYE | Ecuador | Guayaquil | 1.79% | -70.0% | â–˛ 7 |
| 20 | IST | Turkey | Istanbul | 1.77% | +4.4% | â–˛ 11 |
| 21 | GIG | Brazil | Rio De Janeiro | 1.71% | +76.5% | â–˛ 1 |
| 22 | DXB | United Arab Emirates | Dubai | 1.71% | +2.7% | â–˛ 21 |
| 23 | CNF | Brazil | Belo Horizonte | 1.64% | +55.4% | â–Ľ 13 |
| 24 | DMK | Thailand | Bangkok | 1.60% | +72.1% | â–˛ 54 |
| 25 | SDQ | Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo | 1.56% | -14.92% | â–Ľ 13 |
Fraud rate = share of booking transactions denied for a fraud reason. â–˛ = moved toward the highest-fraud end of the global ranking; â–Ľ = moved away. See How to interpret rankings.
United States
Bookings departing from U.S. cities remain the lowest fraud rate among large markets in this report, consistent with the mature, layered fraud-prevention practices already common in this market, with an average fraud rate across all 191 qualifying cities of 0.07%, down from 0.09% a year earlier. Miami (MIA), Memphis (MEM), and Fort Lauderdale had the 3 highest fraud rates in the U.S. Top 10, though all are modest in absolute terms.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MIA | United States | Miami | 0.31% | -29.8% | â–˛ 18 |
| 2 | MEM | United States | Memphis | 0.27% | +5.8% | â–Ľ 1 |
| 3 | FLL | United States | Fort Lauderdale | 0.19% | -7.9% | â–Ľ 17 |
| 4 | LAS | United States | Las Vegas | 0.19% | -11.8% | â–Ľ 24 |
| 5 | LAX | United States | Los Angeles | 0.16% | -29.9% | â–Ľ 21 |
| 6 | PHL | United States | Philadelphia | 0.16% | -18.0% | â–˛ 54 |
| 7 | AVL | United States | Asheville | 0.16% | +106.7% | â–˛ 160 |
| 8 | LIH | United States | Kauai Island | 0.15% | +421.68% | â–˛ 304 |
| 9 | HNL | United States | Honolulu | 0.15% | -28.57% | â–Ľ 19 |
| 10 | IAH | United States | Houston | 0.15% | -34.16% | â–Ľ 13 |
Canada
Canadian departure cities’ average fraud rate declined slightly to 0.16% (from 0.18% a year earlier). Bookings departing from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) had the highest fraud rate in the Canada Top 8, followed by Montréal-Trudeau (YUL).
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | YYZ | Canada | Toronto – Pearson | 0.54% | +19.7% | â–˛ 28 |
| 2 | YUL | Canada | Montreal | 0.48% | -24.3% | â–Ľ 11 |
| 3 | YEG | Canada | Edmonton | 0.25% | +12.8% | â–˛ 157 |
| 4 | YVR | Canada | Vancouver | 0.22% | -18.4% | â–˛ 34 |
| 5 | YOW | Canada | Ottawa | 0.22% | +23.1% | â–Ľ 1 |
| 6 | YHZ | Canada | Halifax | 0.19% | -14.9% | â–˛ 39 |
| 7 | YWG | Canada | Winnipeg | 0.19% | +1.4% | â–˛ 86 |
| 8 | YYC | Canada | Calgary | 0.13% | +5.8% | â–˛ 138 |
Australia & Pacific
Australia and the Pacific remains one of the regions with the lowest average fraud rate, at 0.08% (down from 0.11% a year earlier) — again in line with the more established, layered fraud-prevention practices Q1 2026 identified in this market. Bookings departing from Nadi (NAN), Fiji, Guam (GUM), and Sydney (SYD) had the region’s 3 highest fraud rates.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NAN | Fiji | Nadi | 0.29% | -12.4% | â–˛ 178 |
| 2 | GUM | Guam | Guam | 0.25% | -35.5% | â–Ľ 18 |
| 3 | SYD | Australia | Sydney | 0.24% | +56.2% | â–˛ 72 |
| 4 | ADL | Australia | Adelaide | 0.17% | +32.3% | â–˛ 106 |
| 5 | AKL | New Zealand | Auckland | 0.11% | +99.2% | â–˛ 194 |
| 6 | BNE | Australia | Brisbane | 0.10% | -23.7% | â–˛ 67 |
| 7 | PER | Australia | Perth | 0.10% | -63.4% | â–Ľ 11 |
| 8 | HBA | Australia | Hobart | 0.09% | -8.8% | â–Ľ 31 |
| 9 | MEL | Australia | Melbourne | 0.09% | -47.9% | â–Ľ 53 |
| 10 | CNS | Australia | Cairns | 0.06% | -87.7% | â–Ľ 100 |
Europe & United Kingdom
Europe and the UK sits below the global average of 0.29%, at 0.14% (up slightly from 0.12% a year earlier), with bookings departing from Istanbul (IST), ReykjavĂk (KEF), and Athens (ATH) showing the region’s 3 highest fraud rates.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IST | Turkey | Istanbul | 1.77% | +4.4% | â–˛ 11 |
| 2 | KEF | Iceland | Reykjavik | 0.70% | +212.9% | â–˛ 11 |
| 3 | ATH | Greece | Athens | 0.59% | +120.5% | â–Ľ 18 |
| 4 | BRU | Belgium | Brussels | 0.59% | +180.9% | â–˛ 29 |
| 5 | COV | Turkey | Cukurova | 0.51% | +79.2% | â–Ľ 13 |
| 6 | ARN | Sweden | Stockholm | 0.48% | +980.1% | â–˛ 23 |
| 7 | LHR | United Kingdom | London | 0.40% | +86.9% | â–˛ 72 |
| 8 | CDG | France | Paris – Charles de Gaulle | 0.35% | -10.93% | ▲ 1 |
| 9 | AMS | Netherlands | Amsterdam | 0.34% | +105.81% | â–˛ 22 |
| 10 | OTP | Romania | Bucharest | 0.31% | -5.07% | â–Ľ 27 |
East Asia
East Asia improved the most of any region on a relative basis, with its average fraud rate falling from 0.20% to 0.11% — nearly halving year-over-year. Bookings departing from Guangzhou (CAN), Shanghai (PVG), and Beijing (PEK) had the region’s 3 highest fraud rates.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CAN | China | Guangzhou | 0.51% | -45.0% | â–Ľ 27 |
| 2 | PVG | China | Shanghai | 0.51% | -1.4% | â–Ľ 17 |
| 3 | PEK | China | Beijing | 0.34% | -46.7% | â–Ľ 18 |
| 4 | ICN | Korea, Republic of | Seoul | 0.11% | -47.8% | â–Ľ 71 |
| 5 | HKG | China | Hong Kong | 0.10% | +16.7% | â–˛ 66 |
| 6 | HND | Japan | Tokyo – Haneda | 0.09% | +175.0% | â–˛ 184 |
| 7 | NRT | Japan | Tokyo – Narita | 0.06% | -68.2% | â–Ľ 117 |
| 8 | OKA | Japan | Okinawa | 0.06% | -78.9% | â–Ľ 23 |
| 9 | TPE | Taiwan | Taipei | 0.05% | -82.0% | â–Ľ 75 |
| 10 | KIX | Japan | Osaka | 0.04% | -72.62% | â–Ľ 169 |
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia runs above the global average at 0.77%, though that’s an improvement from 0.92% a year earlier. Bookings departing from Jakarta (CGK), Bangkok (DMK), and Kuala Lumpur (KUL) had the region’s 3 highest fraud rates.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CGK | Indonesia | Jakarta | 4.18% | +3.0% | â–˛ 4 |
| 2 | DMK | Thailand | Bangkok | 1.60% | +72.1% | â–˛ 54 |
| 3 | KUL | Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | 1.54% | -11.2% | â–˛ 43 |
| 4 | HAN | Vietnam | Hanoi | 0.86% | -6.9% | â–˛ 116 |
| 5 | PQC | Vietnam | Phu Quoc | 0.60% | +403.6% | â–˛ 18 |
| 6 | BKK | Thailand | Bangkok | 0.60% | -72.5% | â–˛ 36 |
| 7 | DAD | Vietnam | Da Nang | 0.59% | +43.0% | â–˛ 79 |
| 8 | HKT | Thailand | Phuket | 0.56% | -9.2% | â–˛ 11 |
| 9 | MNL | Philippines | Manila | 0.50% | -62.4% | â–˛ 10 |
| 10 | DPS | Indonesia | Denpasar Bali | 0.49% | -23.0% | â–˛ 36 |
South Asia
South Asia is reporting as a Top 5 rather than Top 10 this quarter, as departure cities in other South Asian countries fell below our transaction threshold. The top 5 are all Indian departure airports: Delhi (DEL), Chennai (MAA), Hyderabad (HYD), Mumbai (BOM), and Bangalore (BLR). The region’s average fraud rate rose to 1.17% (from 1.01% a year earlier).
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DEL | India | Delhi | 1.86% | -3.5% | â–˛ 3 |
| 2 | MAA | India | Chennai | 1.18% | +24.1% | â–˛ 54 |
| 3 | HYD | India | Hyderabad | 1.12% | +41.5% | â–Ľ 4 |
| 4 | BOM | India | Mumbai | 1.02% | +12.0% | â–˛ 46 |
| 5 | BLR | India | Bangalore | 0.67% | +41.5% | â–Ľ 13 |
Latin America & Caribbean
Latin America and the Caribbean continues to run above the global average at 0.69%, though that’s an improvement from 0.91% a year earlier. Bookings departing from Cartagena (CTG), BrasĂlia (BSB), and Sao Paulo (CGH) had the region’s 3 highest fraud rates.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CTG | Colombia | Cartagena | 3.20% | -24.1% | â–˛ 1 |
| 2 | BSB | Brazil | Brasilia | 3.19% | +92.0% | â–Ľ 6 |
| 3 | CGH | Brazil | Sao Paulo | 2.48% | +69.0% | â–Ľ 9 |
| 4 | BOG | Colombia | Bogota | 2.26% | -19.4% | â–˛ 9 |
| 5 | MDE | Colombia | Medellin | 2.17% | -19.5% | â–˛ 5 |
| 6 | LIM | Peru | Lima | 2.14% | +15.6% | â–˛ 12 |
| 7 | GYE | Ecuador | Guayaquil | 1.79% | -70.0% | â–˛ 7 |
| 8 | GIG | Brazil | Rio De Janeiro | 1.71% | +76.5% | â–˛ 1 |
| 9 | CNF | Brazil | Belo Horizonte | 1.64% | +55.4% | â–Ľ 13 |
| 10 | SDQ | Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo | 1.56% | -14.92% | â–Ľ 13 |
Middle East & Africa
The Middle East and Africa is the region with the highest average fraud rate in this report, at 2.03% — up from 1.89% a year earlier, the only regional average to worsen year-over-year. Bookings departing from Cairo, Accra, and Tunis had the 3 highest fraud rates in the region.
| Rank | Code | Country | Departure city | Fraud rate | YoY | QoQ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CAI | Egypt | Cairo | 6.57% | +14.5% | â–˛ 14 |
| 2 | ACC | Ghana | Accra | 4.67% | -30.5% | â–˛ 4 |
| 3 | TUN | Tunisia | Tunis | 4.48% | +30.8% | â–Ľ 1 |
| 4 | CMN | Morocco | Casablanca | 4.27% | +102.5% | â–˛ 6 |
| 5 | JNB | South Africa | Johannesburg | 2.83% | +56.4% | â–˛ 3 |
| 6 | RUH | Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | 2.77% | +31.6% | â–˛ 40 |
| 7 | AMM | Jordan | Amman | 2.56% | +49.5% | â–˛ 58 |
| 8 | LOS | Nigeria | Lagos | 2.42% | -38.0% | â–˛ 1 |
| 9 | JED | Saudi Arabia | Jeddah | 2.27% | +14.7% | â–˛ 16 |
| 10 | DMM | Saudi Arabia | Dammam | 2.13% | +173.5% | â–˛ 35 |
How to interpret these rankings
Fraud rate is the share of booking transactions at a given departure city that were denied for a fraud reason during the quarter. A higher fraud rate means Accertify’s fraud-prevention platform intervened more often relative to the volume of bookings from that city. It does not mean fraud losses were higher, since these are prevented transactions.
Rank #1 in any list marks the departure city with the highest fraud rate this quarter, denoting the route by its point of departure.
Regional rank vs. global rank: each Top 10 (or Top 5) table ranks departure cities 1 through 10 by fraud rate within that region. The Change in Global Ranking column is different. It measures movement in the full worldwide ranking of all qualifying departure cities, not movement relative only to other cities in the same region. A city can hold a stable position within its regional Top 10 while still showing a large global ranking change. This is the first quarter this report has been able to show quarter-over-quarter ranking movement; the inaugural Q1 2026 report had no prior quarter to compare against.
YoY Change in Fraud Rate compares a city’s Q2 2026 fraud rate to its own Q2 2025 fraud rate, expressed as a relative percentage change.
Change in Global Ranking compares a city’s rank by fraud rate among all 537 qualifying departure cities worldwide in Q1 2026 to its rank in Q2 2026 on every table in this report, including the regional Top 10 lists. A city’s regional Top 10 placement reflects its fraud rate relative to its region, but the ranking-change figure reflects its movement in the full global field.
| â–˛ | in red (positive number): the departure city moved toward the highest-fraud-rate end of the global ranking since last quarter. |
| â–Ľ | in green (negative number): the departure city moved away from the highest-fraud-rate end of the global ranking since last quarter. |
| — 0 | no change in global rank position since Q1 2026. |
| “New” | the city did not meet the 10,000-transaction threshold in Q1 2026, so no prior-quarter ranking exists for comparison. |
It’s possible for the fraud rate on a departure city’s bookings to improve while its global ranking still worsens (or vice versa), if bookings from other cities worldwide moved by a larger margin in the same quarter.
Methodology
This report covers airline booking transactions processed by Accertify between April 1 and June 30, 2026 (“Q2 2026”) and, for comparison, the same window in 2025 (“Q2 2025”) and Q1 2026 (January 1 to March 31, 2026). Only departure cities with 10,000 or more transactions in Q2 2026 are included in this quarter’s rankings; 537 cities met this threshold. Q1 2026 rankings, used for the Change in Global Ranking column, reflect that quarter’s own qualifying population of 594 cities (10,000 or more transactions in Q1 2026), a different population size than Q2’s, since the set of cities crossing the threshold shifts from quarter to quarter.
Change in Global Ranking is calculated by comparing each city’s rank by fraud rate among all qualifying cities worldwide in Q1 2026 to its rank among all qualifying cities worldwide in Q2 2026, and is applied uniformly across every table in this report, including the regional Top 10/Top 5 tables.
This is the first quarter for which a quarter-over-quarter ranking comparison is available; the inaugural Q1 2026 report had no prior quarter to compare against. Ranking-change figures will continue on a consistent quarter-over-quarter basis in future editions.