Winding Tree, the Ethereum-based decentralized travel marketplace, will collaborate with American Airlines, one of the world's largest airlines, to equip employees of one of the largest corporate travel buyers in the world with direct access to content from American. This travel buyer will use Winding Tree's decentralized marketplace platform to book travel arrangements directly with American Airlines as part of the collaboration.
While COVID-19 hit the travel industry hard, it also created a window of opportunity for corporations looking to take stock, explore improvements to their protocols, and explore new technologies post-pandemic. The pandemic catalyzed companies toward more innovative, cost-efficient, and decentralized approaches to their corporate travel setups.
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"We're proud to be teaming up with American Airlines, one of the largest and most well-respected airlines in the industry," says Pedro Anderson, COO, and Co-Founder of Winding Tree. "It's not only a testament to our solution, but American is joining at a critical time, since there is a complete paradigm shift in travel, making sweeping innovative changes possible."
The relationship allows targeted travelers to receive uniquely tailored and cost-efficient travel options and provides a more modern booking experience. Winding Tree will provide an improved framework for American's leisure bookings program with this corporate buyer through the partnership. The program will be able to negotiate unique, elevated offers directly with American Airlines. With the help of NDC technology, such deals will be more tailored to the corporation's needs.
"We're always looking for innovative ways to give our customers access to American's content in the way that's most convenient for them," says Neil Geurin, Managing Director, Digital and Distribution of American Airlines. "Winding Tree provides a frictionless approach to achieving this goal, and we look forward to working closely with them."
The program's accommodation for peer-to-peer connections will also allow for future participants to access travel information for other industry focus areas such as, for instance, a journey's sustainable aviation fuel use for environmentally-conscious companies. Alongside a growing list of partners, American Airlines joins Air Canada in leveraging Winding Tree's decentralized marketplace to deal more directly with buyers.
