Local lender Cooperative Bank has launched a feature to buy air tickets through the mobile banking service they offer in cooperation with local travel agency Columbus Travels and Tours.
Clients who use the feature to buy air tickets will pay the same price as through the conventional buying methods while Columbus will bear the electronic transaction charges.
Users will need to have a mobile banking account with the CB Bank and can select the feature through the menu after logging into their account.
The users can buy tickets by selecting “Columbus” as the payment type before filling in the cost of the ticket, passenger’s ID and the code number of the flight, said U Hla Myo, marketing manager of Columbus Tours and Travel.
After receiving the money from the buyers, the ticket and specific code numbers will be sent back through a message to the user’s email, Viber or Facebook accounts which can be shown at the check-in counters with a mobile device before boarding the flight.
“We have included Viber and Facebook messages to ensure the best user experience. Passengers don’t have to print the tickets and can check-in by showing the messages to the airline staff,” said U Hla Myo.
In addition to flights from Myanmar, tickets for flights taking off from Thailand and Singapore can be bought through the feature, he added.
However, the feature can currently only be used in Yangon as only the Yangon branches of the bank support it. Other cities and towns of the country will be covered in the feature by the fourth quarter of this year due to technical delays.
CB Bank said its mobile banking system with a network of over 160 agents have some 50,000 users. Increasingly applying electronic mediums such as internet banking and mobile banking for their services, CB Bank recently launched a service dubbed Business Internet Banking (iBanking) aimed at commercial enterprises.
