Why Travel Payments Leaders Are Booking Tickets to Dublin and Berlin in 2026

The travel payments landscape is shifting faster than ever. Between AgenticAI threatening to rewrite booking workflows, regulators tightening compliance requirements, and fraudsters weaponizing the same tools merchants use for defense, staying current is not optional. Two events in early 2026 stand out as essential calendar blocks for anyone in travel payments, fraud prevention, or merchant services: the Airline and Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) in Dublin and the Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) in Berlin.

ATPS 2026: Where Airlines, Hotels, and OTAs Converge on Payments

The Airline and Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) returns to Dublin on May 19-20, 2026, co-located with Airline Information’s Mega Event. This is the only conference that brings together loyalty marketers, ancillary revenue specialists, and payments/fraud experts under one roof.

What Makes ATPS Different

Dual-track coverage: Delegates can move between payments/fraud sessions and loyalty/ancillary revenue tracks. This matters because loyalty fraud is now one of the fastest-growing attack vectors in travel.
AgenticAI focus: The 2026 agenda is built around “Agentic Commerce” (a-commerce), the shift toward AI agents making bookings on behalf of travelers. Sessions will cover payment standards for autonomous booking systems and how fraud teams can detect AI-generated attacks.
Merchant-friendly pricing: Airlines, hotels, and OTAs pay $249 USD if registered by March 13, 2026. Vendor pricing is $1,199 USD for the same early window.

Key Sessions to Watch

From APIs to Autonomous Booking: The Payment Challenges
Vueling’s Payments and Fraud Manager Cátia Silva and Juspay’s International Director Adam Kissane will break down what happens when AI agents bypass traditional booking flows. This session targets the operational reality many travel merchants will face within 12-18 months.

Case Study: How Emirates is Stopping ATOs
Account takeovers (ATOs) cost the airline industry millions annually. Emirates will share their current defense stack in a session led by LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Payment Standards for Agentic Commerce
With major booking platforms testing AI concierges, the question of how payments authenticate when no human is clicking “buy” remains unresolved. This panel will outline emerging standards and liability frameworks.

Who Should Attend

The attendee list from 2025 included Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Hilton, Booking.com, Expedia Group, and UATP. For 2026, early registrants already include Aegean Airlines, Air Europa, Uzbekistan Airways, and Best Western Hotels.

MPE 2026: The Broader Merchant Payments View

For travel merchants who need to understand how their vertical fits into the wider payments ecosystem, MPE 2026 in Berlin (March 17-19) has a broader lens. With 1,600+ attendees including 500+ global merchants, this is Europe’s largest merchant payments conference.

Travel Relevance at MPE

While MPE covers all verticals, travel merchants benefit from seeing how retailers, marketplaces, and platforms solve similar problems:

Cross-border optimization: Travel is inherently cross-border. Sessions on dynamic currency conversion, local payment methods, and FX management translate directly to airline and hotel checkout flows.
PSD3 and regulatory shifts: European travel merchants need to track payment regulation changes. MPE typically hosts regulators and policy experts who outline what is coming before it hits.
Acquirer and PSP selection: For travel merchants evaluating new payment partners, MPE puts dozens of acquirers, PSPs, and fintechs in one exhibition hall.

The Strategic Case for Attending Both

These conferences are six weeks apart and serve different purposes. MPE in March provides the macro view: where the payments industry is heading, which technologies are gaining traction, and how regulators are thinking about travel-specific risk. ATPS in May drills into the vertical specifics: how airlines handle B2B payments, what fraud patterns are unique to loyalty programs, and how to prepare for AI-driven booking disruption.

For merchant service providers and ISOs reading this, both events are hunting grounds. Travel merchants are actively searching for partners who understand their unique challenges: high average tickets, complex chargeback rules, cross-border complexity, and seasonal cash flow swings. Showing up with relevant case studies and vertical expertise gets conversations started faster than generic pitches.

Key Takeaways

ATPS 2026 (May 19-20, Dublin) is the must-attend event for travel-specific payments and fraud expertise, with heavy focus on AgenticAI and loyalty fraud.
MPE 2026 (March 17-19, Berlin) offers broader payments industry context and is ideal for understanding cross-border optimization and regulatory trends affecting travel merchants.
Early registration for ATPS closes March 13, 2026, with significant savings for travel merchants ($249 vs. $1,199 for vendors).
Both events provide direct access to decision-makers at major airlines, hotel chains, and OTAs actively evaluating payment and fraud solutions.
AgenticAI (autonomous booking agents) is the dominant theme for 2026, with payment standards and fraud prevention still evolving.