Beijing, January 14, 2016 – As China’s fast-growing outbound travel market continues to rise, United Airlines today announced that it has joined forces with Ant Financial to offer China’s leading online payment service Alipay on its United.com Chinese language website. Effective today, the Alipay payment function will offer more efficient and secure online payments for United’s customers in China.
The U.S. is an increasingly popular destination for Chinese travelers, who represent the world’s top-spending and fastest-growing tourism source. With more than 2.56 million visitors from mainland China to the U.S. in 2015, an even greater increase is expected after the ‘2016 China-U.S. Tourism Year’, a cooperative tourism initiative led by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the China National Tourism Administration to expand and shape travel between the two countries. Recognizing a growing trend of sophisticated Chinese travelers utilizing booking on international platforms and favoring independent travel over packaged tours, United Airlines launched a Chinese language website in 2010 to offer easier booking in local language and now offering local payment.
Walter Dias, United’s managing director of Greater China & Korea, Sales said: “This exciting new partnership with Ant Financial’s Alipay is another good example of our strong commitment as the most-friendly U.S. airline in China, as we prepare to celebrate 30 years of doing business in China in 2016. I am confident that this service enhancement will offer more Chinese consumers the chance to travel to the U.S. along with our convenient China-U.S. flight schedules and Chinese services, both on the ground and in the air.”
Alipay, the largest online payment platform in China with over 400 million registered users, makes purchasing flight tickets via United’s Chinese language website (united.com) even more convenient. Customers simply log in to United’s website, choose their flights, and can “pay with Alipay”–via debit card, credit card or their Alipay balance.
Jingming Li, President of Alipay U.S., added: “We are very pleased to partner with United and help them make online booking from China a hassle free experience. By enabling the option to use China’s most trusted and secure payment system, Chinese travelers using United’s website can expect the safe, easy, and consistent experience they have come to expect, while avoiding any currency barriers.”
United has been a bridge between the U.S. and China for several decades. It has helped to promote trade and friendship, as well as exchange between people and cultures and between the two countries since 1986 and will celebrate its 30th anniversary of service between China and the U.S. in 2016. United will continue to focus on increasing awareness of its role as the most-friendly U.S. airline for Chinese travelers. United is proud to have customer-friendly products and services, both on the ground and in the air, including Chinese language-speaking customer service agents and flight attendants, as well as exquisite onboard Chinese cuisine.
About United
United Airlines and United Express operate an average of nearly 5,000 flights a day to 352 airports across six continents. In 2014, United and United Express operated nearly two million flights carrying 138 million customers. United is proud to have the world’s most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates more than 700 mainline aircraft, and this year, the airline anticipates taking delivery of 34 new Boeing aircraft, including the 787-9 and the 737-900ER. United is also welcoming 49 new Embraer E175 aircraft to United Express. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 192 countries via 28 member airlines. Approximately 84,000 United employees reside in every U.S. state and in countries around the world. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United’s parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the NYSE under the symbol UAL.
About Alipay
Alipay is the world’s leading third-party payment platform, with over 400 million registered users and more than 200 financial institution partners. With mobile payments accounting for more than half of Alipay’s transactions per day, the company most recently launched Alipay 9.5 as its latest smartphone app. In addition to traditional online payment functions such as online shopping, money transfers, and utility bill payment, Alipay is expanding its applications to include wealth management services, and provides local services to over 500,000 restaurants, shops and offline merchants. As of December 2015, Alipay’s barcode payment is accepted in about 50,000 overseas retail stores, and tax reimbursements via Alipay are supported in 24 countries.
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