Etihad Airways To Partner With Winding Tree’s Blockchain Platform

UAE’s national airline Etihad Airways has integrated with a blockchain start-up based in Switzerland Winding Tree to deliver its internal information systems.

As per a Reuters reports from Thursday, a decentralized business-to-business marketplace built on Ethereum, called Winding Tree, will give logistical support to the Etihad Airways’ distribution system.

This initiative will allow the airline to bypass third-party operators that manage its inventories, like travel itineraries, flight timings, and baggage tracking. Etihad’s director of digital innovation, Tristan Thomas, explained that these said third parties often provide with an overpriced service. “Very few have chosen to disrupt the distribution world and that’s because those are major players with very significant margins that have acted to keep that kind of a closed shop,” Thomas said.

Winding Tree’s chief operating officer,Pedro Anderson, supportedthat claim and said:

“We have been doing experiments and new solutions on the platform. Ultimately, that benefits the consumer. When there’s innovation, you start to have disruption, you have competition which results in better prices for the consumer.”

Winding Tree already also provides data systems in real-time for many hotels, airlines and tourismoffices across the globe.

The firm had teamed up with Lufthansa in 2017 to create a travel marketplace which is blockchain-based, which was powered by a cryptographic token. A few months later, S7, the Russian airline also announced that it was using blockchain to issue its air tickets. AirFranceintegrated its APIs to operate its airline management system.

With its massive potential to operate and manage a wide sphere of data, Winding Tree helps the global distribution system powered by firms such as Amadeus and Sabre, as well as consumer-facing websites like Booking.com and Expedia.