The old familiar way
Every airport has one. A billing system that started life as a spreadsheet, a database, or a piece of code written years ago by a clever colleague. Over time, it grew with patches and workarounds, adapting to quirks in the tariff or gaps in the process and regulatory changes.
These systems sent invoices and collected revenue. Finance teams knew their shortcuts, their blind spots, and the names of the two people who can fix them if something breaks. For a long while, that seemed good enough.
But aeronautical revenue has changed, and in-house systems are no longer keeping up.
Complexity has overtaken legacy
Aeronautical billing once meant landing fees, parking charges, and a handful of services. Today, it can be far more complicated.
Airports now layer in noise-based levies, sustainability incentives, off-peak discounts, tiered charging across periods and performance-linked fees. Regulators demand traceability and auditability. Airlines expect itemised invoices they can verify quickly.
At global hubs, the challenge intensifies. Hundreds of thousands of movements each year, each with multiple chargeable events: landings, turnarounds, PRM services, de-icing, tows, pushbacks. Every one of these needs to be priced correctly and captured on time. Complexity in operations directly translates into complexity in invoicing.
In-house systems were never built for this level of change. Adding a new tariff can take months of coding. Regulatory updates often require rewrites of fragile code. When staff move on, the knowledge of how the system really works often leaves with them.
Consider a sustainability incentive based on aircraft emissions profiles. In a legacy system, implementing this might require months of custom development, testing, and manual workarounds, delaying rollout and impacting the airport’s ability to meet regulatory requirements. A modern platform can model such rules directly, and connect to the relevant data sources faster, enabling rapid implementation and immediate revenue recognition and compliance.
What modern billing platforms actually deliver
Replacing an in-house system with a modern aeronautical billing platform is not just a technical upgrade. It is a change in how airports think about revenue.
A modern system automatically captures every chargeable event, from landings to ancillary services, directly from operational systems. Nothing is lost, nothing is guessed.
Tariffs become configurable rules. Finance teams can model new incentives or emissions charges without waiting for IT. That agility matters when regulators or the market demand change quickly.
Invoices are clear and traceable. Each line item links back to the movement or service that triggered it. Airlines may still query charges, but disputes resolve faster because the data is there.
And finance teams get time back. Instead of rechecking spreadsheets or chasing data gaps, they can focus on exceptions, analysis, and supporting commercial strategy.
Even a 1% gap in billing accuracy, caused by missed data or tariff errors, can cost a large airport millions of dollars each year. Modern platforms close those gaps, ensuring every chargeable event is captured and revenue is fully protected.
Confidence through process, but not the story
Transitioning from in-house can feel daunting. Accuracy matters. That is why migrations are proven with parallel billing runs. Old and new systems operate side by side, discrepancies are flagged, and accuracy is tested until the finance team is satisfied.
Once validated, the cutover happens in one step. The legacy system retires. The new platform takes over.
But while process provides assurance, it is not the headline. The real story begins afterwards: faster billing cycles, better cash flow, stronger airline relationships, and revenue teams confident they can handle whatever comes next.
The real business impact
Airports that have switched report consistent outcomes:
- Revenue certainty: Every event billed, leakage eliminated.
- Faster cash flow: Invoices go out on time, disputes and credits fall away
- Airline trust: Transparent, data-backed invoices ease tension and build confidence.
- Agility: New charging models launched in days, not months.
- Resilience: No dependency on one developer or a brittle legacy database.
Take Dublin. It was among the first European airports to move to a modern software system designed specifically for airport aeronautical billing. With it came the ability to design and implement rebates, route support schemes, and off-peak incentives. These tools helped attract new airlines, promote route expansion and encourage better traffic distribution, and with them came growth.
And speed matters. Modern platforms process and reconcile charges up to 80 percent faster than in-house systems. That means invoices close quickly, errors are caught early, and finance teams can focus on value, not manual clean-up.
Looking forward
In-house systems may feel familiar, but familiarity is not the same as future-ready. The reality is that operations are becoming more complex, and invoicing must keep pace. Legacy tools cannot offer the agility or confidence airports now need.
Modern billing platforms do more than replace in house code. They are backed by continuous product investment, a clear roadmap, and a community of airports shaping the future together. With CI/CD (continuous integration, continuous deployment) release cycles and regular updates, new features are delivered quickly, from charge explanations to advanced incentive engines. Airports are not waiting years for upgrades; they benefit from improvements as they happen.
That commitment means billing is never static. It evolves alongside the airport’s needs, ensuring confidence in revenue today and readiness for whatever tomorrow brings.
The moment to decide
Billing is not background plumbing. It is a strategic system that shapes an airport’s revenue, its airline relationships, and its resilience.
For airports that want certainty of income, freedom to innovate, and stronger partnerships with airlines, in-house billing has had its day.
Modern billing platforms are not about technology for its own sake. They are about giving airports the confidence that every movement is invoiced, every rule is applied, and every decision is backed by data.
The future of aeronautical billing is already moving on. Airports must decide whether they will too.
