Ethiopian Airlines customers can now use their Skrill and Neteller digital wallets to book outbound flights from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman via the airline’s website, backed by full chargeback protection and access to customer support in 16 languages, including Arabic.  
 
The partnership between Paysafe and the airline has been enabled by FloCash Limited, a pan-African payments network that helps partners scale their business and reach the region’s millions of unbanked customers via the use of converging payment technologies.

Lorenzo Pellegrino, Paysafe Digital Wallets chief executive, said: “Mobile money is reshaping the payments landscape across emerging markets. Digital wallet options such as Skrill and Neteller mean that millions of customers now have access to the online economy, which is a compelling opportunity for businesses in the region.

"We’re delighted to enable businesses such as Ethiopian Airlines to extend their suite of simple, fast and secure payments options, which is crucial to driving sales through the web.”

The announcement is the latest partnership in a series of tie-ups in the aviation sector, with airlines increasingly looking to broaden their horizons when adopting new technologies to grow digital sales, including adopting blockchain systems for retail solutions. 

Meanwhile closer to home in the UK, digital wallets are set for strong growth, according to Worldpay, and next year are expected to eclipse debit cards and become the most popular payment method for online sales, taking 34% of the market. In fact, their growth will help UK m-commerce market, which is projected to rise at an annual average of 21% in the next five years - faster than China, Japan and the US.