Skymetrix Study Finds 40% of Airline Invoices Still Paper-Based, Costing Industry $4.6 Billion

Skymetrix announced in a press release that 40.3 percent of airline invoices are still received as unstructured documents such as paper or PDFs, requiring manual data entry. The study analyzed 1.12 million fuel and airport charge invoices from 31 airlines between 2024 and 2025.

According to the research, human data entry errors occur in 3.6 percent of cases, meaning roughly one in every 28 entries contains a mistake. Skymetrix estimates that these errors cost the global airline industry $4.6 billion each year, representing about one eighth of total net profit.

The report found large differences among airlines, with seven carriers having paper invoice rates below 10 percent and ten above 50 percent. Most finance teams verify only 10 to 20 percent of invoices in detail, allowing many errors to go undetected.

In response, Skymetrix has launched AI Invoice Automation, a touchless invoicing system designed to eliminate manual processing and improve verification accuracy. The company says the solution aims to reduce operational leakage and improve cost control for airlines.