Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT), a Taiwanese airline of Taiwan Inc., recently declared that it will accept bitcoin as payment, becoming the first airline in the country to allow flyers to pay with cryptocurrency for their tickets.

FAT accepts Bitcoin

FAT’s made this announcement on February 28th, stating that the airline will accept payments made using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, for tickets and travel related services, the airline aiming to become a pioneer in the adoption of virtual currency within Taiwan’s aviation industry.

Passengers are now able to use Bitcoin to pay for more than 20,000 flights in a convenient and discounted trading experience.

Zhang Gangwei, the airline’s president, said that his company has “a bright vision for the future of cryptocurrency” as it turned out to be “a significant transaction tool” over the past year. Zhang also said that:

“The widespread use of cryptocurrency in various scenarios will usher in a new future for the airline business, lodging industry, OTA and the entire tourism sector.

FAT is about to be the No.1 in the industry to embrace cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.”

The airline was established in 1957, Taipei, and it once used to be the most popular airline for Taiwanese internal flights. Now FAT could have the chance to attract Bitcoin users across Asia with its international flying routes to Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippine, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Perng Fai-nan, Taiwan central bank governor, stated in October of last year, that he supported applying regulatory laws for cryptocurrency, saying that Bitcoin trading should be taken into Taiwan’s notification system for money laundering prevention law -in a move similar to what Japan has done – to make cryptocurrency legal in the country.

An increasing number of airlines accepting Cryptos

FAT’s announcement comes at a time when more and more airlines are starting to provide its customers with a growing list of payment options, which will prove extremely convenient for cryptocurrency holders.

But this is not the first time an airline has done so. Some airlines have been supporting bitcoin payments for tickets since 2014, when Latvia’s AirBaltic became the first airline ever to accept Bitcoin. Japan’s Peach airlines and Surf Air (which also accepts Ethereum) are just other two airlines that have adopted direct payments with virtual currencies.