Flybondi is the first airline to pair up with TravelX, enabling travellers to purchase flight tickets as NFTs. Will this change how we all holiday in the future?

Low-cost airlines make foreign travel more accessible but aren’t without their hidden costs. Have you ever needed to change the name on a cheap flight ticket, with the fees costing more than the ticket itself? That’s one way to suck the joy out of a holiday. TravelX is making sure that doesn’t happen again, with easy-to-use NFT tickets.

At the moment, there are over 60 airlines in talks with TravelX. Each of them is hoping to explore the adoption of the company’s NFTicket technology. Built on the Algorand blockchain, Argentinian budget airline Flybondi has launched its collaboration with TravelX. The initiative has been coined “Ticket 3.0”.

The announcement explains that “NFTickets enable secure, flexible, and efficient ticket distribution, reducing customer service costs and increasing revenue for airlines as they collect a percentage of NFTicket sales on the secondary market.”

This pioneering move is potentially heralding a new era in the travel industry. NFT tickets have already emerged within the music industry, letting fans securely access fairly priced tickets and unlock additional perks. What are the advantages offered by NFTickets in the travel industry, though?

Benefits of NFTickets from TravelX

NFTs can be used in a multitude of ways. Far beyond digital collectibles, they solve many everyday problems and make processes simpler across a range of industries. How, then, do NFT tickets make things better for air passengers?

  • Easily change names – If you spell a name wrong on a ticket, it can cost around £50 to amend 3+ characters with some budget airlines. NFTickets do away with this hefty penalty, allowing ticket holders to autonomously edit or change names on tickets with no hassle.
  • Give away tickets – Plans change, and Ticket 3.0 recognises that. If you can no longer make a flight, or if you simply want to surprise someone, you can give your air ticket away via the blockchain.
  • Simply transfer tickets – Swap or transfer your ticket to someone else, without jumping through a bunch of stressful hoops.

All these benefits mean you no longer have to have every detail preplanned when organising a flight. This way, you can secure seats before you’ve firmed up who will be joining you on your trip. If you have a capricious and unpredictable schedule, you don’t have to wait to buy flight tickets last minute and endure hiked pricing.

How Will Ticket 3.0 Work?

This new Ticket 3.0 integration builds upon an existing relationship between Flybondi and TravelX.

Back in September 2022, when TravelX launched, the company’s chief blockchain officer explained to CoinDesk how things work. Facundo Martin Diaz said that the company doesn’t charge customers a fee when they initially purchase a ticket. However, there is a 2% transaction fee when sales are made on the secondary market. This 2% goes to TravelX, with another 2% also going to airlines.

Buying NFTickets is really easy. Passengers can buy tickets through the Flybondi website and can use fiat money. TravelX then issues a synchronized NFTicket on top of the regular ticket. From here, travellers can create a Ticket 3.0 account, where they can manage and store their Flybondi NFTs.

The process is super simple since all the terms and conditions of the ticket are built into the NFT via smart contracts.

Speaking of the integration at a press conference, Flybondi CEO Mauricio Sana said:

“With this launch, we seek to generate a positive impact in the aviation industry through innovation and an application of blockchain technology. Changing the rules of the game is never easy, but we know that it is our objective to evolve and offer our passengers a new stage of the freedom to fly.”

Flybondi CEO Mauricio Sana

To learn more about what NFTs can do, head to our blog for more information and updates!