Germany-based Hahn Air and open-source travel distribution platform Winding Tree have partnered to issue airline ticket powered by blockchain technology.

The carrier not only became the first to issue airline ticket on the blockchain but also the first to fly ‘blockchain passengers’.

The passengers were Winding Tree founder Maksim Izmaylov and CIO Davide Montali, as well as Hahn Air Sales Engineering head Frederick Nowotny.

The flight was scheduled from Dusseldorf to Luxemburg on 18 November.

Blockchain technology is an open-source platform that allows all the participants, including airlines, travel companies and distribution systems, to access and transact easily without intermediaries.

The technology reduces cost and is 100% secure as most of the relevant information is stored in a decentralised ledger.

The ledger is certified by millions of sources, therefore, providing no chance of corrupting the data.

Using the Winding Tree platform, the airline can list inventory, manage reservation requests and receive payments.

The platform allows payments by cash, credit card or cryptocurrency.

Nowotny said: “We at Hahn Air are constantly exploring new technologies and we are proud to now demonstrate our technical capability to issue blockchain-powered Hahn Air tickets.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Winding Tree, the most established company when it comes to distributing travel inventory in the blockchain. Our goal is to investigate and monitor the opportunities this technology holds for travel distribution, even if widespread acceptance is still a vision of the future.”