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Now boarding: mobile payment
August 2nd 2019
Spring Airlines partnering with WeChat, and China Southern with Union Pay. Read More »
Ubiquitous app WeChat spread its reach further with a Spring Airlines trial to let passengers pay for onboard purchases using WeChat Pay. The trial continues the long-standing partnership between WeChat and Spring, which in 2013 introduced booking by WeChat, now standard for airlines.
The trial covers two routes and does not use real-time processing, so payment is limited to passengers with a credit rating over 550. Payments are settled once on the ground.
China Southern and UnionPay signed an agreement to build an aviation payment solution to support China Southern’s expanded new distribution capability. The focus is on the booking process, but UnionPay wants to explore in-flight mobile payment, building on its existing in-flight credit card support.
