Peach Aviation Ltd, one of Japan’s largest discount airline providers, has become the first in Japan to accept bitcoin as a payment option for airline tickets with an aim to attract more tourists from Asian region, Bloomberg reported.
Passengers can use bitcoin to book seats starting by the end of the year. Peach said in a statement in Tokyo Monday that the carrier aims to increase tie-ups with local governments and regional companies in order to help spread usage of the currency.
“We want to encourage visitors from overseas and the revitalization of Japan’s regions,” Shinichi Inoue, chief executive officer of Peach told reporters in Tokyo Monday. “This is a real first step in partnerships for Japan and we are aiming for more company and service tie-ups.”
With bitcoin surging past $2000 USD at press time, there has been increased bitcoin users across the globe. AirBaltic, a Latvian airline, announced long back that it would start accepting payment using bitcoin as it focuses on the customer. Also, Universal Air Travel Plan teamed up with Bitnet as a payment processing partner in 2015, to allow it to offer the ability to accept bitcoin payments.
