Bitcoin payment processor Bitnet has partnered with Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) to enable the possibility of bitcoin payments for partner airlines.

The UATP is a payment network owned jointly by airlines including American Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa,  JetBlue, Qantas, US Airways and United Airlines.

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Although the deal does not necessarily entail that individual airlines will begin accepting bitcoin, it does give them a more convenient avenue should they decide to do so – similar to Shopify’s enabling of a bitcoin option for its merchants.

The partnership also means that UATP can educate its partner airlines about Bitcoin and how it can help cut costs stemming from fees and chargebacks. In addition, there can be savings on foreign exchange fees arising from the differing global locations between airlines and consumers.

Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO of UATP, found Bitnet to be a worthy partner, its team having valuable experience in the payments industry. “We are very happy to be partnering with Bitnet to add bitcoin to our payment platform. We are always looking for skilled partners to bring additional forms of payment to the UATP processing platform and Bitnet fits the bill well,” he said.