Blockchain technology has proceeded to develop in influence across various industries and countries. The latest frontier for it to succeed, though, appears to be aviation.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the most advanced aviation firm to combine innovative technology into its platform, as the firm attempts to improve settlements over various of its subsidiaries. 

Time to Welcome Emerging Technologies 

Dutch blockchain startup Unchain.io declared that it had associated with KLM to examine the advantages of utilizing blockchain to help improve an essential part of its internal business processes, earlier this week. As the official press release states Unchain formed a strategic finance application for the Dutch aviation giant, which will assist in improving financial data handling. 

As the press release revealed, the platform operates on Corda, a blockchain produced by global enterprise solutions provider R3. The solution will aid in simplifying KLM’s accounting process and improve settlements by executing Corda and utilizing it to record, manage, and synchronize data.

Dominique Vijverberg, an innovation specialist at KLM Finance (the FinTech division of KLM Royal Dutch), revealed that the project had gone over various rounds of research and had been scrutinized by the KLM Digital Studio. 

The studio has also been actively investigating the application of emerging technologies (including artificial intelligence and augmented reality) to help push KLM’s global digital change initiative. Vijverberg also continued that the strategic solution would help to change the firm’s blockchain center from theory to practice.

Although the specific details of the subsidiaries that will now be associated in this program weren’t reported in the press release, Unchain did authenticate that KLM will still be running on the addition of other units to its complete blockchain ecosystem. 

“After initial learnings in smaller projects with the Digital Studio, KLM Finance is happy to announce this project, which we see as strategic to simplify our financial processes and to set an example for future blockchain projects that are no longer ‘test,’ but have a real business impact,” Vijverberg added. 

Blockchain Crystallizes Its Aviation Presence

The combination of blockchain into KLM’s infrastructure is though another important milestone for the symbiosis between both the industry and the technology. While technology has been capable of helping various aviation firms to improve their operations, KLM is somewhat more impressive. 

A member of the Air France-KLM conglomerate, the firm is one of the most significant players in the global aviation space, with yearly revenues evaluated at €10.34 billion ($11.37 billion) as far back as 2017.

Nevertheless, KLM isn’t the only significant player shifting to the blockchain. Last August, Etihad Airways (the official carrier of the United Arab Emirates) declared a collaboration with blockchain travel firm Winding Tree to help aid distribution. 

As a Reuters report approved at the time, the application of Winding Tree’s platform will assist in reducing transaction costs for its consumers, while also promoting it to send inventory reports immediately to its consumers as well. The statement added that Etihad was entering a host of other leading airlines to employ the platform, including Lufthansa, Air Canada, and Air France-KLM.