Spanish Airline Vueling to Accept Cryptocurrency as Means of Payment

January 17, 2023 Bitcoin.com

American Airlines partners with decentralized travel market Winding Tree

November 16, 2021 Coin Telegraph

airlines

The airline industry is still reeling from the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down the global economy and restricted travel.

Ethereum-based decentralized travel marketplace Winding Tree has announced a new collaboration with American Airlines that will allow select travelers to receive tailored booking options, opening up a potential new use case for blockchain technology.

Through the collaboration, American’s largest corporate travel buyers will have access to Winding Tree’s marketplace to book travel directly and receive “uniquely tailored and cost-efficient travel options,” the companies announced. Neil Geurin, who serves as American Airlines’ managing director of digital and distribution, said Winding Tree gives customers “provides a frictionless approach” to accessing travel accommodation.

Winding Tree said its marketplace accommodates all sorts of peer-to-peer connections for the travel and aviation industry. In addition to American Airlines, the marketplace has already secured a partnership with Air Canada, one of North America’s largest carriers.

American is the largest passenger airline in North America, having served over 95.3 million passengers in 2020. Passenger traffic peaked near 215.2 million in 2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. In October, American announced a third-quarter net profit of $169 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, on revenue of $9 billion. Revenue rose 20% from the previous quarter.

#COVID19: we estimate that aviation industry passenger revenues could drop $252 billion or 44% below 2019’s figure.

See full analysis https://t.co/41uGPqcN8P #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/rOhJCvqjQZ
— IATA (@IATA) March 24, 2020

Airlines were ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic as governments locked down their economies and restricted both domestic and international travel. According to Airports Council International, the impact of the pandemic removed more than 1 billion passengers in 2020. Winding Tree co-founder Pedro Anderson said the pandemic created a “complete paradigm shift in travel” that has placed a premium on innovation.

In 2020, air transport technology provider Sita estimated that 59% of airlines were already piloting or researching blockchain technology solutions for their internal processes. As far back as 2018, it was estimated that 86% of aerospace and defense companies were planning to implement blockchain in the foreseeable future, according to Accenture.

Subsidiary of Mexican airline Volaris accepts Bitcoin payments

October 20, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption agenda continues apace, this time extending to a local airline.

As a result of El Salvador’s mainstream Bitcoin (BTC) adoption, Volaris El Salvador, a local subsidiary of budget Mexican airline Volaris, will accept Bitcoin as payment.

The Bitcoin move comes a month after Salvadoran aviation authorities gave Volaris's local subsidiary permission to operate in the country.

Salvadoran President Niyab Bukele took to Twitter to announce that the airline would accept Bitcoin.

Ya tenemos aerolínea salvadoreña, de bajo costo y que acepta #Bitcoin

@viajaVolaris pic.twitter.com/mMqzxtOYhA
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) October 20, 2021

In a recent Volaris event hosted on Twitter, President Bukele highlighted that the ability to pay with Bitcoin and the state-run Chivo wallet “allows us to increase the offering of flights for Salvadorans.”

Bukele’s government continues to incentivize citizens to use Bitcoin for payments and has even offered fuel subsidies. The country had previously reinvested $4 million worth of unrealized Bitcoin gains to fund infrastructure development projects such as a veterinary hospital.

Following in El Salvador’s footsteps, authorities from a Venezuelan airport plan to start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment for tickets and other services.

As Cointelegraph reported, Simón Bolívar International Airport, in association with the National Superintendence of Crypto Assets and Related Activities, wants to enable crypto payments as a means to comply with local industry standards.

According to the airport director Freddy Borges, the airport will accept payment in Bitcoin, Dash (DASH) and the Petro, a government-issued oil-backed token. Signaling a commitment to drive cryptocurrency adoption, Borges said “we must advance in these new economic and technological systems to be accessible.”

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