Emirates Airlines Starts Accepting Bitcoin

Dubai-based airline Emirates has announced the addition of bitcoin to payment methods, as well as interest in blockchain, NFTs and the metaverse.

Emirates Chief Operating Officer Ahmed Al-Redha informedthat the company strives for faster and more flexible interaction with customers, therefore it is ready to introduce the latest technologies into its business processes. Not only is airline management starting to accept bitcoin as a means of payment, but it is also exploring the possibility of using blockchain to track aircraft data and share information more quickly.

Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the aviation industry is starting to gradually recover, as evidenced by the growth in the number of passengers, Al Reda said. He believes that the use of non-fungible tokens could speed up the process, given that many well-known companies are launching their own NFTs to increase customer loyalty. Emirates plans to hire staff to help the company grow in the NFT and metaverse industry by learning from user needs.

“NFT and the metaverse need to take different approaches. With their help, it is possible to transform all internal processes, whether it is work, training, sales on the site or communication with users, making interaction with them more interactive,” the airline’s COO believes.

Emirates is no longer the only airline ready to accept crypto payments to increase the number of customers. Last year, the airline Volaris El Salvador also began to support payments in bitcoins. In March 2021, the Latvian airline airBaltic added support not only for Bitcoin, but also for ETH, DOGE, BCH, USDC, BUSD, GUSD and PAX.