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Yesterday Airlines Reporting Corp (ARC) announced that United Airlines has completed a proof of concept (PoC) for reporting and settlement of airline ticket sales. ARC is one of the leading providers of payment and settlement services in the United States, which connects airlines with travel agencies. It welcomes more than $ 86 billion of transactions between airlines and travel agencies in the year.
The PoC involved an end-to-end test using ARC's private blockchain to track the transaction life cycle of a ticket sale from issuance to settlement, using smart contracts for transaction changes.
"In the case of direct or indirect ticket sales, we believe that blockchain has the potential to provide a secure, distributed, and unchangeable transaction log that will improve existing business processes today," said ARC vice president Dickie Oliver.
ARC is a logical user of blockchain because it serves as a bridge between airlines and travel agencies. While some expect blockchain for disintermediate companies like ARC, it is often these companies that have to implement them. ARC also provides data on 60% of global airline transactions and the service of corporate travel departments, which is the hub of the blockchain.
Blockchain helps to report travel expenses
The next step is a pilot with one of United's corporate clients. If this succeeds, then ARC will extend capacity to other airlines.
Jeff Christensen of United Airlines explained that the PoC enabled "simplifying the payment and booking process for corporate travelers and their employers: time-consuming processes, such as collecting receipts for expense reports, can be greatly improved. "
To demonstrate the concept, the company collaborated with Blockskye on a dedicated travel platform that uses an authorized private version of Ethereum.
Brook Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Blockskye, explained that any transformative technological change in the industry must involve ARC "because ARC is at the forefront of the epicenter of the US settlement system."
The co-founder and CTO of Blockskye is Kieren James-Lubin, President and CEO of BlockApps and son of ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin.
Main travel blockchain projects
In October, IBM announced a blockchain partnership with Travelport. The B2B travel market manages $ 83 billion a year in travel expenses. Their initial project is to use blockchain to integrate specialist travel trips into booking platforms that might otherwise be too low to justify.
Winding Tree is another blockchain startup that is making progress with airlines. He has signed several European airlines such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Swiss Air as well as Air New Zealand and more recently Air Canada.
