Winding Tree, the Ethereum-based decentralized travel marketplace, has announced a new collaboration with American Airlines that will allow select travelers to receive personalized booking options, opening up a new potential use case for blockchain technology.
Through the collaboration, American’s largest corporate travel buyers will have access to the Winding Tree Marketplace to book trips directly and receive “uniquely personalized and cost-effective travel options.“The companies announced. Neil Geurin, who serves as American Airlines’ managing director of digital and distribution, said Winding Tree provides customers with a” frictionless approach “to accessing travel requests.
Winding Tree said its market accommodates all types of peer-to-peer connections for the travel and aviation industry.. In addition to American Airlines, the market has already secured a partnership with Air Canada, one of the largest airlines in North America.
American is the largest passenger airline in North America, serving more than 95.3 million passengers in 2020. Passenger traffic peaked near 215.2 million in 2019 before 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. Revenues increased 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
# COVID19: We estimate that aviation industry passenger revenue could fall $ 252 billion or 44% below the 2019 figure.
Airlines were devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic when governments blocked their economies and restricted national and international travel. According to the Airports Council International, the impact of the pandemic affected 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 ushered in innovation.
In 2020, air transport technology provider Sita estimated that 59% of airlines were already testing or researching blockchain technology solutions for their internal processes. As early as 2018, it was estimated that 86% of aerospace and defense companies were planning to implement blockchain in the foreseeable future, according to Accenture.
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