Sky not the limit: AirBaltic first airline to accept bitcoin

Bitcoin’s latest expansion is into commercial airspace after Latvian airline airBaltic announced customers can start using bitcoins to pay for tickets. AirBaltic is the first airline to offer a bitcoin payment option.

“Introducing the bitcoin payment option is a part of our
innovative approach to service with a central focus on our
customer,” the airline’s CEO, Martin Gauss, said in a
press statement.

Prices will be displayed in euro and converted into euro at the
current exchange rate by Bitpay, a third-party payment processor,
the statement said.

The move is testimony to the company’s innovative approach to
business, which has ranked among the top ten most innovate
airlines worldwide, according to Gauss.

The press statement doesn’t address how ticket refunds or
cancellations would work under the bitcoin regime, or if
customers that live in countries that have bans on bitcoin, will
be able to use the feature. Air ticket prices also include taxes,
and currently bitcoin is not taxable, since it isn’t backed by
any government.

While bitcoin has gained popularity, it has also has a dark side,
since the anonymity has made it a popular vehicle for crime
including drug trafficking,

For that reason, many central banks have banned the currency,
worried that users may unintentionally become mixed up in complex
money laundering schemes or even indirectly sponsor terrorism.

Latvia itself doesn’t have a ban on the cryptocurrency, but
Russia, Norway, and Iceland have all set up restrictions on using
the currency.

The low-cost airline, established in 1995, flies to over 60
destinations across Europe, Russia and the CIS, and the Middle
East. In 2011 the company became state-owned, but is now in
privatization talks, an option Gauss says “isn’t
impossible.” In 2013, the budget airline had a net income of
$1.4 million (1 million euro).