Air New Zealand To Join The Blockchain Party
Recently it was announced by Air New Zealand, that a blockchain-based distribution platform would be partnered with Swiss travel platform Winding Tree. The goal is travel industry. Winding Tree will assist suppliers like Air New Zealand to distribute their inventory in a new and innovate manner.
Currently, the travel industry is highly concentrated on the distribution front. Intermediaries being allowed to concentrate the sector and raise the barrier of entry for new startups. The inventory of consumer facing intermediaries is sourced from other B2B intermediaries, which causes double marginalization and price inflation. A decentralized alternative is built by Winding Tree, to the current concentrated travel distribution landscape, where inventory can be accesed from the suppliers by anyone who whant.
Air New Zealand is apparently looking at a number of potential use cases for the distributed ledger technology including cargo and baggage tracking, retail, distribution and loyalty programme opportunities.
Blockchain technology is developing rapidly, and the airline is excited by the possibilities. This is Air New Zealand Chief Digital Officer’s opinion:
“With its built-in efficiency and security, blockchain has the potential to trigger huge innovation in travel, paving the way for new business models and collaboration. Blockchain may offer a streamlined way to retail airfares and ancillary products alongside our current channels. In removing complexity from the sales chain, customers benefit from reduced transactional costs, and airlines benefit from swift and secure sharing of information”.
“With a business-to-business marketplace system powering blockchain-based travel booking transactions, companies will be able to gain direct access to travel service providers’ offerings. We are very excited to be partnering with Air New Zealand, as it’s an important step in bringing blockchain technology to the travel industry and creating opportunity for innovation, ”- said Winding Tree Founder and Chief Executive Officer Maksim Izmaylov.
Air New Zealand introduces innovations to enhance the customer experience, such as artificial intelligence backed chatbot Oscar. It helps customers with queries online. Also Air New Zealand mobile app, and its experiment with the social robot Chip, who assisted customers with check in at Sydney Airport earlier this year.
