Trinidadian company WiPay, which was launched in Guyana last December, is now collaborating with Caribbean Airlines and Bill Express to make it easier for persons to purchase airline tickets online.
The company, which was launched in Trinidad in 2016 and then in Guyana in 2018, is a provider of payment solutions using technology. WiPay is a fully integrated payment processing platform gateway for E-Commerce, which facilitates online payments.
At a press conference yesterday, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of WiPay, Sasha Thompson, stated that the company had launched a credit card online payment process in December, which was a free plugin that could be used on websites to process credit card payments.
The collaboration with Caribbean Airlines is set to make it easier for persons to purchase tickets without having to leave their homes. Thompson stated that persons who reside out of town and do not wish to travel hours to Georgetown can purchase their tickets using WiPay.
“For those that do not wish to travel a few hours into Georgetown to CAL’s office to physically purchase a ticket, they can now, in four simple steps, purchase a WiPay top up voucher from any of the 50 plus Bill Express locations nationwide to pay for their ticket, anywhere, any time and even on the go,” said Thompson.
The four steps include calling Caribbean Airlines to indicate interest in using WiPay as a payment option, then visiting a Bill Express location to purchase the top up voucher in the amount of their booking. Customers would have to return a call to Caribbean Airlines, give their reference number and WiPay voucher number, and the payment would subsequently be applied to the customer’s booking. “This is innovation in customer experience,” Thompson added.
The COO further stated that Caribbean Airlines approached WiPay with a problem they were trying to solve, which was the distances customers had to travel to purchase tickets.
In Trinidad, the company has partnered with the Judiciary of Trinidad & Tobago to make it easier for citizens to pay their maintenance court fees. While they previously would have had to go to the court to make those payments, they can now make the payments from their home using the WiPay platform.
Thompson ended her remarks stating, “WiPay is transforming the way payments are made in Trinidad, in St Lucia, in Guyana, [and] very soon, in a few weeks, in Jamaica then Dominica; until we hit every single Caribbean island,” she stated.
Representative of Caribbean Airlines, Dion Inniss, told the press conference that Caribbean Airlines is extremely pleased to partner with WiPay. Inniss stated, “Now that we’re going live, I can tell you that we’re very excited with this project of ensuring continuing customer convenience”.
He added that Guyanese customers from the hinterland regions and Berbice have had difficulties in terms of access. “They no longer need to come to an office and we’re particularly happy that this facility has been launched and we look forward to finding ways as we’re doing to bring relief to our customers and make it easy to do business,” Inniss said.
He further added that the system is not only for persons to purchase tickets but they can also pay for other services like baggage fees and seats.
