Germany’s Hahn Air Introduces Blockchain-Powered Tickets

A German airline has issued the first airplane tickets powered by blockchain technology, according to a report by Reuters.

Hahn Air, an airline that flies throughout Europe, said the blockchain tickets were a partnership with open-source travel distribution platform Winding Tree.

Blockchain is a shared database maintained by a network of computers, and it’s used to show ownership. It emerged as the system that powered bitcoin.

The Hahn Air passengers with the blockchain tickets flew from Dusseldorf to Luxembourg, and the passengers were the Winding Tree Founder Maksim Izmaylov and Chief Information Officer Dave Montali. Also on the flight was Hahn Air Head of Sales Engineering Frederick Nowotny.

“For us, it is important to look into the future to understand how can we make distribution faster,” said Jörg Troester, Hahn Air head of corporate strategy and government and industry affairs.

The airline is now going to look at the details of how the whole operation went and try to figure out how to move forward commercially, but Troester said, “We are not at that point right now.”

Hahn Air, in addition to operating as an airline, also works with travel agents for distribution solutions.

Using Winding Tree technology, Hahn Air can list inventory, manage requests for reservations as well as collect payment at the end of a transaction. The airline not only accepts conventional payment methods like cash or credit cards, but also cryptocurrency — Winding Tree’s LIF token or ether.

“One of the things that we are working on our side is the challenge that comes up when you create an open marketplace — how to ensure that anybody who gets access, whatever you’re selling or buying, that the business on the other side is of good standing,” said Winding Tree Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Pedro Anderson.

Winding Tree’s platform is decentralized and open-sourced. It works with Air Canada, Swissport and Lufthansa, among others.