The volume of transactions through a blockchain platform of S7 Airlines and Alfa-Bank in July exceeded $1 million

2019: The volume of settlings with agents through a blockchain platform exceeded $1 million

The S7 Airlines company, the participant of global aviation alliance oneworld, in partnership with Alfa-Bank develops own blockchain platform. In July, 2019 the volume of settlings with agents through a blockchain platform exceeded $1 million, reported on July 30 in S7 Airlines. At the same time total sales of tickets through the platform since the beginning of year were 245 million rubles. Economic effect of work of the platform since the beginning of 2019 until the end of July was 100 million rubles, and by the end of the year the additional income should reach 200 million rubles, counted in the company.

Thanks to this technology it became simpler to agents to work with airline directly that allowed us to expand own network of sales S7 Airlines. Within this year to the platform it is going to connect the first online agents who work according to the NDC standard — noted the sales director of S7 Groupekaterina Dmitruk.

S7 Airlines sold the first-ever air ticket by means of connection to a banking system through a blockchain in July, 2017. The private blockchain was constructed based on the Ethereum protocol. It is the first project in which infrastructure for carrying out payments in a constant duty was created — from a booking system of tickets to the system of carrying out payments of bank. On a response of representatives of airline, implementation of the platform allowed to increase the speed of calculations and to reduce paper document flow, at the same time having guaranteed security of transactions.

The number of transactions grows monthly. Since January the amount of payments through a blockchain platform increased ten times. In addition to the number of transactions, also the number of different processes which we automate on our platform grows. In many respects it became possible thanks to the Hyperledger Fabric platform which provides not only optimal network performance, but also allows to store safely and privately data of different participants — the chief executive of S7 Techlabnikolay Mukhanov noted.

High rates of our project with S7 Airlines show that the blockchain technology creates value and in many respects is defining for the market of B2B-calculations. Agents left from guarantees and deposits, lowered operating costs and can conduct calculations 24/7. We see high potential of use of smart contracts and external business logic in calculations and document flow in different sectors of economy. Alfa-Bank will develop this direction together to S7 Airlines further — the director of transaction business of Alfa-Bank Pavel Ryazanov said.

2018: Refueling the airplane using smart contracts

In August, 2018 S7 Airlines of the first in Russia performed refueling the airplane using smart contracts on the basis of blockchain technology together with Gazpromneft-Aero operator and Alfa-Bank. The technology allows to increase the speed of calculations and to minimize financial risks of participants of the transaction, without requiring prepayment and bank guarantees. Process of write-off of means and transfer of reporting documents between the supplier of fuel and airline takes only 60 seconds.

2017: Start of a blockchain platform for automation of trade operations

On July 27, 2017 S7 Airlines and Alfa-Bank announced start of the innovation blockchain platform for automation of trade operations. The private blockchain is constructed based on the Ethereum protocol in which by means of smart contracts information exchange of partners when carrying out payments is provided.

Project Progress

Within the project infrastructure for carrying out payments in a constant duty — from a booking system of tickets to the system of carrying out payments of bank was created.

Results of start of a blockchain platform

In a platform configuration for July 27 partners are S7 Airlines and the agents performing sale of tickets. Payments are made by Alfa-Bank which obtains information on the performed operations from the node of network included in a private blockchain. All cycle of transactions, including formation of the request for payment, check of sufficiency of means on the account, write-off of means and updating of the status, is executed by a system automatically. According to the new scheme more than 100 air tickets are already issued.

According to representatives of S7 Airlines and Alfa-Bank, implementation of the Ethereum platform opened possibilities of business process optimization both for airline, and for her partners. Speed of calculations grew from 14 days to 23 seconds. The airline does not grant the agent a delay in payment and receives revenue right after execution of the air ticket. Thanks to this technology agents will be able to work directly with airline without providing additional financial guarantees, also the technology will allow to reduce the volume of document flow and guarantees security of transactions.

We carried out the first-ever transaction on purchase of the air ticket through an open blockchain of API to bank, but I am sure that such scheme will be used by many companies around the world soon. The blockchain platform allows to optimize business processes. It automates any scheme of settlement, even very difficult — for example, warehouse deliveries. At such mechanism participation of the person is practically not required: it is not necessary to make out bills, to carry out reconciliations, to write acts. Potentially suppliers of an onboard power supply, fuel, airport services — all those companies can be connected to the platform with whom S7 Airlines constantly works, and not only — the deputy CEO for information technologies of S7 Group Pavel Voronin summed up the project results

We see demand for a blockchain from the market and further intend to develop and replicate this solution both together with S7, and with other clients of bank using the agency scheme in the distribution — the head on development of settlement projects of Alfa-Bank Pyotr Zubritsky noted

Plans of S7 Airlines

Further using this technology S7 Airlines is going to leave from the deposit scheme of settlement and use of bank guarantees and to transfer to the platform information maintenance of the repeating business processes connected with reconciliation procedures and bank payments — in particular, vendor interaction of goods and services at the airports.