SPAIN’S Vueling Airways will offer passengers the chance to pay for tickets via cryptocurrency from next year- the first such move for a budget airline in Europe.

The carrier has partnered with one of the largest bitcoin payment infrastructure providers, BitPay, to to accept bitcoin as payment.

Ticket prices will be displayed in euros and customers will be able to pay using many of the wallets and payment methods accessible through the BitPay ecosystem.

Vueling’s alliance head, Jesus Monzao, said: “With this agreement, Vueling once again reaffirms its position as a digital airline.”

“We are very pleased to have found in BitPay the best partner to offer our customers the possibility of making transactions with cryptocurrencies with the greatest security and reliability.”

In order to build out the infrastructure needed to accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment by early next year, Vueling will also partner with Universal Air Travel Plan Incorporated (UATP), which is a payments network provider for travel-related expenses.

At first, the option will only be available to individuals on Vueling’s website.

UATP’s Rachel Morowitz said: “Offering cryptocurrency as a form of payment to the buying public is a must in this digital age of payments.

“UATP and BitPay partnered to bring this option to the airline industry and is fulfilling the rising demand of Vueling’s customers to pay with cryptocurrency,” she added.

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