Alipay, China’s largest third-party online payments provider, has boosted its international reach through an agreement with Australia-based budget airlines Jetstar. Announced today, the deal will allow millions of Alipay users in China to book flights on Jetstar through the airline’s website and pay for the tickets in renminbi.
Jetstar, Asia’s largest low-cost carrier by revenue, is expanding its Chinese network to nine Chinese destinations, including a planned service linking Beijing, Singapore Melbourne. China is Australia√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s biggest export tourism market in terms of expenditure and Singapore√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s second largest source of tourism traffic, said Jetstar Chief Group Commercial Officer David Koczkar in a press release.
“It is vital that we continue to innovate our product and distribution channels to make our low fares more and more accessible to the Chinese consumer,” he said. The airline recently launched a Chinese-language booking website.
With a fleet of 80 aircraft, Jetstar offers up to 3,000 flights a week to 56 destinations in 17 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region.
Alipay CFO Eric Jing said√Çhis company√Çinitiated its cross-border payment service in 2007 to meet growing demand from Chinese consumers who are using the Internet to purchase goods and services from overseas merchants. Alipay has more than 600 million registered users and accounts for about half of China’s online payment services market.
