Etihad Airlines Partners with Blockchain Startup Winding Tree

The open-source travel platform, Winding Tree, will aim to offer blockchain solutions to the Emirates national airline.

Etihad Airlines, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, has partnered with Winding Tree, an open-source travel startup, reportedReuters. Winding Tree will aim to use blockchain solutions to automatize the distribution of services without using a third party.

Until now, Winding Tree has offered partnership and services to Air Canada, Air France-KLM, and Lufthansa. The air travel sector is one of the most active adopters of blockchain technology and offers use cases for automatization and smart contracts.

“Winding Tree is obviously our distribution (platform) and that’s an opportunity for us to disrupt a traditionally siloed market dominated by major distribution systems,” said Tristan Thomas, Etihad’s director of digital and innovation.

Currently, airlines use the services of Amadeus and Sabre to distribute available services, using a real-time inventory. But the inventory is only accessible to professional travel agents or bookers, while Winding Tree will aim to disrupt the process. A blockchain-based database can be available directly to customers with the latest inventories and possibilities. Currently, consumers only view inventories through retail-facing sites such as Booking.com, or Expedia. The market for distribution services remains relatively closed, and so far no other technology has opened up access directly.

Use cases for blockchain solutions involve smart contracts that allow for travel mile rewards, or compensations in cases of delay. But so far, Winding Tree is one of the first companies to offer distribution solutions. It is still unknown what type of blockchain would be used, and whether it would be one of the public chains, or a business-grade, private blockchain.

The partnership arrives at a time when alternative blockchain projects are facing headwinds in terms of market price. But there is still a drive to adopt various types of blockchains as a means of tracking data.