Trillions of dollars moving at snail’s pace slows investment, as the airline industry knows.
The industry estimates that trillions of dollars are stuck in transit. They are held up in arduous money movement infrastructure that, anecdotally, can take involve multiple transactions every month to bring the cash back into an organisation. At Freemarket, we refer to this as ‘slow money’; a useful shorthand for the friction that slows down transfers because of a dated cross-border payment infrastructure. For many emerging and innovative market routes, slow money remains the only practical option. For many industries, it is a brake on growth and investment.
IATA reports that, as of October 2025, ‘airlines had a staggering USD $1.2 billion in blocked funds globally’[1]. Airlines in some regions report hundreds of millions of dollars stuck to FX shortages and other issues. IATA refers to this as ‘blocked funds’, and it can severely disrupt cash flow, potentially leading to a freeze on capacity in the region or to a market exit, reducing opportunities for businesses.
It happens because of the airline business structure. They may earn revenue in many countries and therefore currencies, but the major costs of fuel, leasing fees and crew accommodation are paid for in US dollars. As IATA says, it’s hard to sustain operations if you can’t use the revenues you’ve earned to pay the bills’[2] (Thomas Reynaert). There is also the opportunity cost. Money that is slow to move, cannot easily be invested in upgrading the fleet, expanding to new routes or developing new materials. For the airline and the businesses in the region, slow money also slows growth and competitiveness.
This can put downward pressure on local economics. Money, and planes, connect markets. It’s not just the aviation industry that feels this pain. In the Retail and ecommerce sector inventory can sit unsold and profit margins begin to shrink. Similarly, in construction, projects stall and developer cash sits in partially built assets, going nowhere. Freeing up this slow money could improve connectivity and unlock economic potential in business and the wider regions.
It’s not a new problem, but it does have new solution. Entire careers have been spent managing the processes of bringing money back into the business. To navigate these challenges, multinational companies rely on treasury experts and strategies like transfer pricing, intercompany loans, or local reinvestment to put the capital to work within the region. That said, the slow movement of money can also cause issues with financial planning. CFOs need a single view of cash positions that can be difficult to pinpoint, not to mention potential issues of loss of value between payment and release of funds.
The Freemarket network gives you control over risk, as well as routing, timing and settlement. It offers Treasury teams an additional layer to support payable, receivable and reconciliation processes. It also widens the choice of infrastructure. For the aviation industry and the wider financial community, we can improve the amount of working capital available to your enterprise.
Together, we have the capability to reduce those throughout-the-month transfers to a single process that takes minutes. It means that businesses can optimise international payments while reducing operational complexities and costs. By leveraging automation and a network of banking partners, Freemarket offers faster, more cost-effective, and transparent money movement services than traditional rails. In the Freemarket network, you can move money between your own entities or to any other client or counterparty, making most payments instantaneous and avoiding complex and costly legacy banking rails.
Industry estimates of the amount of slow money in the system varies in the trillions. So the impact of releasing this revenue is huge. The airline industry feels the effect of slow money severely. The Freemarket network can enable airlines to move money quickly and securely at a lower cost, allowing them to use their cash more efficiently. Moving money at a faster pace could free up billions into the global economy. At a business level, it could improve your access to working capital for lending, investment and growth opportunities.
Enable the movement of your funds. Whatever form of payments company you are, we can help. With Freemarket you can seamlessly manage your cash flow positions and execute your domestic and cross-border transactions. All this happens through quickly and easily within our network.
Our dedicated team will assist you with onboarding. So you can access 10 years of expertise and a network that constantly evolves to support our customers’ needs.
Join banks, PSPs, MSBs, liquidity partners, stablecoin issuers in our network and see how you could transform your payment and treasury needs
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[1] https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/opinions/the-hidden-cost-of-blocked-funds/
[2] https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/opinions/the-hidden-cost-of-blocked-funds/
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