Today, Utrust brings cryptocurrency payments to over 600 airlines through a new partnership with Alternative Airlines, online flight search platform. Now Alternative Airlines’ customers can pay for flights to destinations across the globe using cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), DASH, DigiByte (DGB) and Utrust’s own UTK.
Utrust’s partnership with Alternative Airlines means travelers can pay for competitively priced flights across all major airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Ryanair, and China Southern Airlines. Specializing in off-the-beaten-track destinations, Alternative Airlines also works with national and regional carriers such as Emetebe Airlines in the Galapagos Isles.
Commenting on the partnership, Utrust CEO, Nuno Correia, said, “For business or leisure, flight travel can be expensive with consumers saving for months to afford a trip. Considered a high ticket item, it is imperative that consumers are protected when booking flights. Utrust is providing Alternative Airlines’ customers with the increased security and convenience of cryptocurrency payments, and reducing processing fees, to bring greater transparency and trust to the world of online payments. ”
In the highly price competitive-low margin Online Travel Agency (OTA) market, low payment service fees are crucial for success. Traditional card payment methods incur significant fees and can detract as much as between 3 and 7% in valuable revenue. Typical payment service providers (PSPs) offer a full range of processing currencies but the settlement of multiple currencies can mean a loss in margin for an OTA as a result of forex costs. While cross border operations warrant the facilitation of alternative payment methods popular in the relevant jurisdiction, this presents challenges in local markets. Utrust is revolutionizing the OTA market by introducing instant cross border transactions, buyer protection, and crypto-to-cash settlements with a 1% transaction fee.
Thanks to Utrust, Alternative Airlines can now settle payments directly to its bank in fiat on the same day they are received, offering protection from potential market volatility. An IATA-accredited agency, Alternative Airlines was featured in the 2019 Sunday Times Fast Track Tech 100, which highlights the top 100 fastest growing technology companies and awarded Best Selling Travel Agent 2017.
Sam Argyle, Managing Director of Alternative Airlines, said, “At Alternative Airlines, we are dedicated to providing a seamless transaction process, while empowering our customers to choose how they want to pay. Alternativeairlines.com is a single platform for travellers to easily search and book flights on over 600 airlines. Our customers can currently choose from over 25 payment methods—including all major debit cards and payment plans from all the best-known global providers—as well as over 160 localised currencies. We are incredibly excited, as our partnership with Utrust is the next major step in continuing to tailor the online booking experience to the customer, who will now have the opportunity to pay with cryptocurrency on all of the airlines that we ticket.”
About Utrust
Utrust is the leading cryptocurrency payment solution designed to modernize the finance and payments industry and solve the problems of traditional payment methods by offering instant transactions, buyer protection, and immediate crypto-to-cash settlements for the merchant. The Swiss-based startup was granted SRO approval to operate as a ‘financial intermediary’ under VQF, the self-regulatory organization approved by Switzerland’s independent financial-markets regulator, FINMA. The Utrust platform went live in 2019 when football club S.L. Benfica came on board as the first merchant and the first major European football club to accept cryptocurrency. Utrust has since added Phone House Portugal to its growing list of merchants.
About Alternative Airlines
Alternative Airlines is a flight-search and booking website that offers a fast, easy and convenient way to book flights to remote destinations, as well as well-known locations. Alternative Airlines specialises in providing travellers with a wider choice of flights by working with more than 650 airlines including the smaller, regional ones across the world, especially in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and South-East Asia. Alternative Airlines’ global audience can enjoy over 25 international payment methods across 160 currencies.