The Argentinian low-cost carrier Flybondi has become the first airline in the world to allow passengers to resell their tickets and, in the process, earn a cut of any profit made by selling the ticket for a higher price than it was originally sold for.
Similar to how concert ticket vendors like Ticketmaster have allowed resales for years, Flybondi has introduced a new platform from travel technology startup TravelX to introduce a similar concept for airline tickets.
The system works by creating an NFT ticket alongside the original ticket, which is stored on the blockchain. The two tickets are synchronized and have the same fare rules, seat numbers and itineraries, allowing Flybondi to trace the NFT ticket even as it is resold or transferred to someone else.
The technology currently allows resells up to 72 hours before departure, enabling both Flybondi and TravelX to earn a transaction fee whenever the ticket changes hands, aviation website Aviacion Al Dia reports.
Normally, airlines strictly forbid reselling tickets, but Flybondi CEO Mauricio Sana said resales had obvious advantages for both customers and the airline.
To demonstrate his point, Sana described a situation in which Flybondi might sell a ticket at a deep discount, only to then find that demand for flights suddenly goes up, and it could have sold the ticket for a much higher price.
At this point, the airline regrets selling the original ticket at such a low price, while the passenger holding the ticket realizes they could make money by putting it up for sale. Flybondi then recovers some of the ‘lost’ revenue while the passenger makes a profit on their unwanted ticket.
In other situations, passengers who have bought otherwise non-refundable tickets might be able to recoup some of their money back if they suddenly find that they are no longer able to take the flight they had booked.
TravelX is hopeful that the ability to resell airline tickets will become widely available, and the company says it is already in talks with 60 other airlines about its NFT ticket technology.
Re Flybondi’s new ticketing.
This is the death knell for cheap flights for everyone. Ticket touts will be able to buy up ALL the cheaper tickets and just wait for the money to roll in.
Absolute disaster!!
What a great idea, let bots buy all the low fare tickets and then resell them at 100% or more than the original cost. I don’t see this going bad at all.
This will be terrible. Just like concert tickets speculators will buy up tickets hoping to make money driving up prices for everyone and throttling supply. Nice technology terrible outcome.
I think this is a smart sales concept and if the airline sets their price point and profit target margin at the minimum it will be a win for all. They would have all the seats sold by reseller agents bots, a legit passenger who probably charge ghier travel plans or touts ,Who ever chooses to buy and resell the tickets would be left with the burden to sell those tickets. Their mark up will not greeter than 10% or ait will be competitive price point to the competition airliner or they would be left at a loss with the tickets… one threat I see would be scammers thanking advantage of this and selling fake tickets, inorder to curb this airline would probably need to build the site for the reselling of tickets or else they would loose the trust of passenger