AirAsia Group, an airline based in Malaysia, might be converting its frequent traveler’s points right into a cryptocurrency of its own, which it’s going to be called BigCoin, in accordance with Tony Fernandes, founder, and CEO of the group.
In an interview with the portal Nikkei Asian Review, Fernandes introduced that beginning next April, ticket costs might be quoted on the airline’s website, both with standard currencies and in BigCoin. He additionally stated that in an interval of roughly 3 to 6 months, will probably be attainable to make use of the brand new cryptocurrency to pay for seat upgrades, meals on flights and different services.
The founder of AirAsia additionally talked about the completion of an Initial Currency Offer (ICO) soon, without giving additional particulars in this regard. This, according to him, will make it attainable to purchase BigCoin in cryptocurrency trade homes, in addition to trusting that the token might be accepted by third-party firms.
In his statements, Fernandes is little involved concerning the criticism of cryptocurrencies, particularly concerning safety and price volatility. Quite the opposite, he believes that the digital forex is a great tool to alleviate the dangers of fluctuations within the revenue of firms in overseas international locations.
AirAsia Group, with local airways in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India, delves further into the digital world and also plans to make use of its operational information to supply different Fintech companies. They started in January of this year with the launch of the BigPay mobile wallet.
By means of this wallet, passengers should be able to purchase meals and drinks on board utilizing their smartphone, because of the provision of a Wi-Fi network on airplanes. The company additionally aspires to make use of the mobile platform in alliance with firms that send money and loans, along with venturing into e-commerce and logistics services.
With all these initiatives, the Asian company follows traits and enters the worldwide competition unleashed around Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies; both as a result of some countries and firms seek to develop them by creating new cryptocurrency and more services or as a result of some states need to regulate them.
As AirAsia Group airways, other companies dedicated to air transport have determined to benefit from blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. These include the Japanese airline Peach Aviation and the Russian airline S7, which announced in mid-2017 that they’d accept payments in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), respectively, as payment for their services.