German airline issues ‘blockchain-enabled’ plane tickets

Leading German airline Hahn Air has issued its first flight tickets on the blockchain using open-source platform Winding Tree.

Winding Tree aims to increase the efficiency of aviation travel by utilising blockchain technology.

The first “blockchain-enabled” tickets were used on a Hahn Air flight from Dusseldorf to Luxembourg on November 18.

The first three passengers to trial the blockchain-issued tickets were Winding Tree’s founder and CIO as well as Frederick Nowotny, who is the head of sales engineering at Hahn Air.

According to a press release, Nowotny said: “We at Hahn Air are constantly exploring new technologies and we are proud to now demonstrate our technical capability to issue blockchain-powered Hahn Air tickets.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Winding Tree, the most established company when it comes to distributing travel inventory in the blockchain.

“Our goal is to investigate and monitor the opportunities this technology holds for travel distribution, even if widespread acceptance is still a vision of the future.”

While blockchain technology’s use cases have so far been confined to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, several industry advocates believe that it can transform the supply chain, distribution, and public transport industries, with a partnership like this being a key step forward for the technology.

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