OREANDA-NEWS.    Latvian airline airBaltic has become the world’s first airline to accept Bitcoin as payment for its tickets to 60 destinations in Europe, Middle East, Russia and the CIS.

Martin Gauss, airBaltic Chief Executive Officer: “airBaltic has been ranked among TOP 10 most innovative airlines globally. Introducing the Bitcoin payment option is a part of our innovative approach to service with a central focus on our customer.”

airBaltic accepts Bitcoin as payment for tickets on its website www.airbaltic.com. The ticket prices on the website are displayed in euros. When airBaltic customers pay for their flight, their Bitcoins are converted into euros at the current exchange rate. To make accepting Bitcoin possible, airBaltic teamed up with Bitpay, a third-party payment processor that converts Bitcoins into euros. The Bitcoin payment option is available when purchasing the cheapest tickets, known as airBaltic Basic class.

Bitcoin is a software-based payment system introduced in 2009. Payments are recorded in a public ledger and bitcoin is its unit of account. Bitcoin payments are accepted by such companies as WordPress.com, Overstock.com, Expedia, Dell, and others.