Airline fraud rates are dropping — but new risks are still emerging
The latest in Accertify data shows a 30% year-over-year drop in global airline fraud pressure in the first half of 2025 — but there’s more to the story.1 While we’re seeing decreased fraud attempts, new hotspots are emerging, and certain departure airports are seeing surges in fraudulent activity.
The latest in airline fraud
Trends in this space shift over time, both in terms of geography and overall fraud rates. Accertify’s data from the first half of 2025, presented here, demonstrates a general drop in fraud pressure, but one applied very unevenly, with some departure airports becoming riskier and others significantly improving.
Accertify’s customers in the airline space, including 8 of the 10 leading airlines around the world, are experiencing low and falling fraud rates coupled with significant transaction acceptance rates. Equipped with a highly accurate fraud detection algorithm powered by machine learning and a rich travel industry data set, these businesses are seeing the value of fraud prevention.
What is the overall risk of airline fraud?
In a heavily digital economy where card-not-present (CNP) fraud is a constant threat, airline tickets are a high-value target for fraudsters. As a participant in the airline space, you need to prepare your business to deal with the constant risk of loss due to fraudulent transactions.
Organizations count on Accertify’s platform to defend against CNP fraud carried out with stolen credit card information, customer credentials, and synthetic identities.
Overall airline ticket fraud rates in early 2025
Globally, Accertify’s customers in the air transport space saw a fall in fraud pressure in the first half of 2025. The overall number is down 30% year-over-year, with a fraud pressure rate of 0.25%, one attempt per every 400 bookings.2
Four-tenths of those attempts originated from U.S. airports, down slightly from 42% in the first half of 2024.3 The share of fraud originating at European airports fell faster, from 24% last year to 12% this year.4
How have fraud patterns changed for airlines?
Driven by opportunity, fraudsters are continually adjusting their targets. What has this meant through the first half of 2025? The results observed by Accertify differ widely depending on both overall regions and individual airports.
United States
Overall fraud rates fell 38% year-over-year in H1 2025. This trend included large drops in fraud pressure at Dallas Love Airport (69%), San Diego International Airport (68%), and Chicago Midway (67%). Fraud pressure rose 175% at Daniel K. Inoue International Airport in Honolulu and 40% at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.5
The highest-risk major airport in the U.S. in terms of fraud pressure was Miami International Airport, rising from second to first place, with a caveat – the fraud rate at Miami International still fell when comparing H1 2025 with 2024.
Europe
Fraud pressure from European points of departure fell by 50% between the first half of 2024 and 2025. Among major airports in the region (airports with over 1 million bookings during the half year), the lowest overall fraud rates occurred at:6
- Kraków John Paul II International Airport, Poland.
- Bristol Airport, U.K.
- Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport, Italy.
The biggest fraud rate decreases took place at:7
- Naples-Capodicino International Airport, Italy (57% year over year).
- EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, France (50%).
The highest-risk major airports in the region include London Heathrow in the U.K. and Humberto Delgado Airport in Portugal. Among airports with under 1 million departures, Athens International Airport in Greece and Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport had the highest risk.8
Asia-Pacific
The overall drop in fraud pressure was lower in the APAC region than elsewhere, with just a 6% drop. Amid high-traffic airports, the lowest fraud rates took place at Auckland Airport in New Zealand and Haneda Airport in Japan, which led the region with a 72% year-over-year decrease. The second-biggest fraud decrease, 27%, happened in Singapore.9 Some airports in the area increased in risk — fraud pressure rose 50% at Auckland despite its overall status as a low-risk airport. Other notable increases included 230% at Cairns Airport and 136% at Perth Airport, both in Australia. This contributed to a 21.4% risk rise in Australia.10
The highest risk rates among smaller airports (100,000 departures minimum) were observed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, which rose 114% year over year, and Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand, home to a 47% increase.11
Regionally, APAC provided a mixture of signals. With some airports seeing dramatic increases in pressure and others large falls, the overall pattern favored lower fraud pressure. The persistent, shifting risk shows the continued need for advanced fraud detection and prevention strategies.
Accertify’s fraud prevention platform equips airlines to stay ahead and detect threats in real time, reducing fraud, and keeping approval rates high. We can help carriers pinpoint the riskiest routes in their map and implement fraud prevention strategies before fraudsters strike.
What kind of fraud prevention is best for airlines?
As an air travel company facing this fraud landscape, what can you do to protect your business? You need high-tech solutions like Accertify’s platform, which uses the most detailed and comprehensive data sets in the industry and advanced machine learning systems to detect patterns that would be invisible to less advanced systems.
It’s important to note that these solutions extend from end to end, protecting account creation and access in addition to transaction processing, to protect against loyalty point theft. Specific protective measures include added verification steps and escalation based on subtle behavioral signals.
Accertify’s status as a leading provider of protection for the aviation industry, helping 8 of the 10 leading airlines, gives us access to more data and lets us build precise solutions to keep fraud down in the airfare space. Our knowledge serving airline clients has also given us the experience to craft tailor-made solutions and help airlines make decisions.
Take direct action against fraud in air travel
With Accertify’s fraud prevention platform, airlines can react faster and take action against CNP fraud whenever it strikes. Our real-time monitoring flags emerging hotspots, so you can adjust strategies and stay ahead of attackers before they affect your approval rates and your revenue.
Contact Accertify and request a demo to learn how to get your air travel business moving at the speed of right.
1-11 Statistics are derived from Accertify airlines client data from 2024-2025 or as stated.