Bermuda’s home-grown airline has partnered with Zero Hash, a fintech company with global reach and a Bermuda base, to become the first airline in the world to offer native stablecoin payments for ticket bookings. The announcement came yesterday at the inaugural Bermuda Digital Finance Forum, a showcase for how local businesses are innovating financially.

Travellers will soon be able to purchase flights using stablecoins, which are digital currencies tied to traditional money like the US dollar.

They will be accepted directly on BermudAir’s website and mobile app. The feature is expected to go live by the end of summer, according to Edward Woodford, the founder and chief executive of Zero Hash.

“For certain customers, this may make a lot of sense,” he told The Royal Gazette. “And for BermudAir, it makes a lot of sense as well to offer this.”

The idea is simple: cut out the extra steps. Right now, international travellers often face 1 per cent to 3 per cent foreign transaction fees when buying flight tickets with a credit card. Stablecoins can avoid those fees and allow payments to process instantly, without relying on banks or dealing with currency conversions.

“We’re eliminating the friction of currency exchange and foreign transaction fees,” said Adam Scott, founder and chief executive of BermudAir. “This is about making the experience faster, cheaper and more inclusive for travellers worldwide.”

Mr Woodford explained that Zero Hash’s role is to keep the experience seamless for customers and for the airline. “They just need to embed our kind of embeddable widget that makes it very, very simple,” he said. “Stablecoins effectively cut out intermediaries and make it streamlined.”

He added that stablecoins are becoming more common, even if users don’t always realise it. Through platforms such as PayPal and Venmo, “you can access stablecoins seamlessly,” he said.

Zero Hash, which is licensed in Bermuda under the Digital Asset Business Act, sees the island as an ideal global hub. “We really find that Bermuda is a great point for our global business,” Mr Woodford said. “Clear regulation that is adaptive to what is ultimately an adapting technology.”

The partnership also reflects Bermuda’s growing presence in the digital finance world. “We’re scaling out. That’s why we’re here,” Mr Woodford said. “We’re invested in the region and continuing to build.”

BermudAir has previously made inroads into digital finance, including a $1 million tokenised bond issuance in partnership with crypto custodian XBTO.