UK-based private jet charter flight booking service PrivateFly has stated that Bitcoin (BTC) payments stimulated January this year.
Bitcoin payments made 19% of the company’s earnings last month, and clients paid 13% of the flights in bitcoin. This is a robust increase compared with the typical 1%-2% monthly share of such payments PrivateFly announced in recent years. The firm did not present any other numbers.
The aviation industry, which started accepting BTC in 2014, claims that the current spike in bitcoin’s value supported the company.
“We’ve accepted bitcoin payments for many years now, but transactions in the cryptocurrency have really taken off in recent months, alongside its climb in value,” PrivateFly stated in a statement.
BTC jumped by around 180% in the past three months and exceeded the USD 50,000 level for the first time before correcting lower again.
Meantime, the company announced that, in addition to bitcoin, it also accepts payments in other cryptoassets and stablecoins, such as ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), and USD Coin (USDC), among others.
“And ever since we’ve seen a small proportion of clients choosing this option, for one-off flights or our Jet Account membership, which gives clients streamlined booking and additional benefits when they place funds on account with us. Clients pay us via BitPay, and we immediately transfer the funds into pounds, euros or dollars,” as claimed by the business.
In answer to its customers’ expanding demand, the company decided to launch a new membership program, the Bitcoin Jet Account, to keep their funds in BTC.
“We saw that while some cryptocurrency-paying clients wanted to realize their gains, others wanted to hold onto their bitcoin, so their account balance would move in relation to traditional currencies (both positively or negatively of course),” claimed by PrivateFly.
As many carriers worldwide struggle to stay financially afloat due to the ongoing pandemic, many companies reach out to cryptocurrencies to create additional revenue streams.
Last September, South Korean budget airline and Korean Air affiliate Jin Air joined forces with blockchain-powered travel and rewards points firm Mil.k to initiate a crypto-powered promotional offer for flight tickets.
Earlier in 2020, another budget airline, Norwegian, declared it aimed to enable customers to pay for tickets using cryptocurrency within the year, hoping the new functionality would improve its financial results.
Nevertheless, the company is currently subject to bankruptcy protection in Ireland but claims that Norway’s government is ready to help the airline financially through scandasia.com.
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