Airlines Accepting Bitcoin as Payment Method – The Future of Aviation

In March 2021, Simple Flying investigated the possibilities for cryptocurrency use in commercial air travel for the first time. Back in 2014, AirBaltic was the first airline to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment. It has now sold its trading platform for NFT collectibles, called planies. The trading of NFTs is becoming a craze in the aviation industry. Qantas and Air Europa are just two instances of airlines that have recently unveiled their own NFT trading platforms. Tickets using blockchain technology are not totally new. For example, S7, a Russian airline, began selling tickets on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017. However, in a world where aviation sustainability is aiming for the center stage, blockchain and cryptocurrency, which require an extravagant amount of energy, do not fit the burgeoning net-zero narrative. Emirates is the flag airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They recently announced intentions to incorporate bitcoin as a payment option and offer NFT collectibles for trade on the company’s websites. The adoption of Bitcoin as a payment method by Emirates would be a massive milestone for the airline industry. It would make Emirates the biggest global airline directly accepting cryptocurrencies. While some airlines have begun to accept cryptocurrency as payment, the practice is still uncommon among big carriers. Why Should Airlines Accept Crypto As Payment? Why should the aviation sector care about Bitcoin?...