Spanish Airline Vueling to Accept Cryptocurrency as Means of Payment – Vueling, one of the Spanish budget airlines that has grown after the Covid-19 travel restrictions ended, is taking its first steps to accepting crypto as payment for its services. The company said on January 14 that it was examining the use of blockchain and NFT technologies to enable the purchase of plane tickets with cryptocurrency.
For this purpose, Vueling has partnered with Criptan, a national exchange that is already registered with the Bank of Spain, to act as a payments company that processes and fulfills customer purchases using cryptocurrency. Vueling claims this will make it the first low-cost airline in Europe to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
On this, Jesus Monzo, Vueling’s alliances and distribution manager, stated: “This agreement places us at the forefront of new technologies and innovation, further reinforcing our commitment to our customers and offering the best and most advanced tools and solutions on our website.”
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Criptan’s CEO, Jorge Soriano, claimed that the company believes the inclusion of crypto payments might enhance the user experience by showing to clients the potential of such solutions. The functionality is anticipated to be available on the airline’s website by the third quarter of 2023. It will utilize UATP technology, the worldwide payments network for airlines, although the company has not specified which cryptocurrencies would be accepted.
Other airlines have already implemented cryptocurrencies and even NFTs into their retail operations. Flybondi, an Argentinean airline, has stated that it will begin issuing airline tickets as NFTs in September 2022, allowing consumers to trade them on secondary markets.
As part of this agreement, the company would also accept stablecoin payments, such as USDC, using Binance Pay. Prior to that, however, the Venezuelan government said that it would accept multiple cryptocurrencies as payment for airline tickets in October 2021, including the national token, the petro.
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