• Offers additional convenience for international customers, supports airline's global growth

MONTREAL, Aug. 21, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced that Alipay and WeChat Pay as payment choices are now available when booking on the carrier's North American and Hong Kong websites. Air Canada is the first Canadian airline and is amongst the first North American carriers to offer these secure payment options in North America.

"Since last fall, our customers around the world have been able to use their preferred local method of payment when purchasing flights on aircanada.com in their home country, including Alipay and WeChat Pay options in China. With increasing numbers of customers purchasing tickets in North America and Hong Kong looking to use these alternate forms of payment, we are very pleased to expand AliPay and WeChat Pay options to aircanada.com bookings in Canada, the USA and Hong Kong. This is another important element of our global expansion strategy as we increase our focus on providing our international customers with their preferred method of payment when purchasing outside China," said John MacLeod, Vice President, Global Sales and Alliances at Air Canada.

Air Canada processes alternative and local payment methods via a single gateway. This makes it easy for the airline to expand, adding new payment methods as needed without requiring individual contracts, or additional development work. Air Canada's customers are able to transact locally on aircanada.com using iDeal in the Netherlands, Sofort and Giropay in Germany, Bancontact in Belgium, Poli in Australia, Alipay plus WeChat Pay in China, Canada, the USA and Hong Kong.

About Air Canada
Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 220 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2017 served more than 48 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 59 in the United States and 98 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,317 airports in 193 countries. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax, which also named Air Canada the 2017 Best Airline in North America. Air Canada was also named the 2018 Eco-Airline of the Year by the respected airline industry publication Air Transport World in its 44th Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards for its commitment to emissions reductions through supporting the development of alternative fuels, its numerous green programs and partnerships, and being the first airline worldwide to voluntarily join the World Bank's IMF Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition. For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com/media, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

SOURCE Air Canada

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2018/21/c2688.html