The Hunan province capital of Changsha has just seen the launch of trials for use of the Chinese central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make online payments for air flight tickets.
The Hunan province branch of Bank of Communications recently teamed up with flight providers Okay Airways (奥凯航空) and Air Travel (湖南航空) to permit use of the digital renminbi to pay for flights to and from Changsha Huanghua Airport.
Under the scheme customers are able to make payments in the digital renminbi for flights and related services via the official WeChat account of Okay Airways, as well as the official website of Air Travel, using a Bank of Communications digital renminbi wallet.
Bank of Communications says the initiative marks the official start of the usage of the digital renminbi for civil aviation purposes in Hunan province.
Bank of Communications is already involved with the provision of digital renminbi payments for metro systems, buses, civil aviation, carparks, gas stations, and vehicle inspections, with current partners including Hunan province’s Longxiang Bus Group (龙骧巴士集团).
As of the end of November Bank of Communications had opened over 350,000 digital renminbi wallets for individual residents of Hunan province, which had been used for more than 1.4 million transactions worth around 170 million yuan.
