As of today, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines offers her customers the opportunity to pay for tickets and ancillaries via WeChat Pay on KLM.com and WeChat. KLM is the first non-Chinese airline to offer her customers this payment option on the number 1 social media platform in Mainland China.

WeChat has over 963 million monthly active users of which 600 million have activated WeChat Pay. This is a payment feature integrated into the WeChat app, which makes it possible for users to complete payment quickly with smartphones without leaving the platform. WeChat Pay is accepted pretty much everywhere you go within China and over 40% of all mobile transactions is being executed this way. The service is available for all users that have a Chinese bank account.

Paying for a KLM ticket has become simple: once a passenger booked a ticket on KLM.com via desktop, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, a QR code appears. Users scan this code which refers them to WeChat Pay, the money is amortized and a successful payment is done. If a customer booked a ticket on mobile or via the WeChat app, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, the customer is automatically referred to WeChat Pay and able to pay for the ticket easily. Users need to bind their bankcard only once to use WeChat Pay.

Pieter Elbers, President & CEO KLM: "The WeChat Pay option is a perfect next step in KLM's social media strategy. We believe we should be where our customers are. In China we therefore have to be on WeChat. China has developed into an incredibly important market for KLM. By offering WeChat Pay, KLM has made it possible to book a ticket and pay for it via WeChat, subsequently receiving flight info and ask questions 24/7 all on the same platform. The WeChat Pay feature gives us valuable insights for implementing payment options into other worldwide social platforms in the future as well. By taking this next step, we continue to be an aviation pioneer."

Contributed by KLM