Emirates are offering customers a new way to pay: with their crypto wallets.
On the airline’s app and website, paying through Crypto.com will now appear as a payment method for eligible customers in the UAE. They can then approve the payment in their Crypto.com app. Emirates is the first airline in the Middle East to offer this option in their booking process.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer, said:
Bringing this initiative to life delivers on our commitment to expanding customer choice in how they pay for travel. It also reflects the rapidly evolving preferences of a younger, digitally fluent generation who manage their money and plan their journeys primarily from their phones and they expect the airlines they fly with to keep pace.
Crypto.com and Emirates signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in July 2015 to launch new digital payments systems. The collaboration aligns with Dubai Cashless Strategy, which aims for 90% of transactions in the emirate’s government and private sector to be digital by the end of this year.
Customers who pay in cryptocurrency benefit from lower transaction fees and enhanced privacy. Crypto.com estimate around 9% of the world’s population currently own some form of cryptocurrency, with the UAE among the countries with the highest adoption rate.
Vueling became the first airline in Europe to accept crypto payments through a 2022 partnership with BitPay. But most airlines are yet to integrate cryptocurrencies with their payments ecosystem.
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