American Airlines Announces Partnership with Winding Tree Travel Platform

A American Airlines and Swiss travel platform Winding Tree said on Tuesday that they have formed a partnership that will allow corporate buyers to access US airline data directly, without the need for an intermediary.

Winding Tree is a decentralized travel marketplace based in Ethereum and launched in 2017, which claims to aim to make travel cheaper for consumers and more profitable for providers.

Tourism and corporate travel agents currently obtain flight and room data from global distribution systems (GDS) such as Amadeus and Saber, which employ real-time booking technology.

Winding Tree’s platform will allow companies such as airlines and hotel operators to publish available locations directly to these customers.

“We are always looking for innovative ways to give access to the content of the American to our customers in the way that is most convenient for them,” said Neil Geurin, managing director of digital and distribution at American.

Through the partnership, Winding Tree will provide a framework for the leisure reservations program at American with corporate buyers. The program will be able to negotiate exclusive offers directly with the American Airlines.

“Although the marketplace connectivity is generic, the Ethereum blockchain ensures that each relationship is unique to the individual agreement between seller and buyer, allowing for custom content pricing between the two parties,” said Pedro Anderson, COO and co-founder of Winding Tree.

Alongside a growing list of partners, the American Airlines joins Air Canada to leverage Winding Tree’s decentralized market to deal more directly with buyers.