In the wake of the corona pandemic, some airlines introduced only cashless payments on board. This was the case at Wizzair and Ryanair, among others. Now the Hungarian lowcoster accepts cash on board again. However, if you pay with Mastercard or Visa, you now get a price reduction of ten percent.

The competitor Ryanair, on the other hand, does not want to see any cash, but can still only pay with credit and debit cards (with the exception of Maestro and Vpay). The “Cards-Only” policy leads to problems on many flights; normal debit cards (Maestro or Vpay) cannot be used to pay on board. The spread of offline-capable credit and debit cards of the Mastercard and Visa schemes is quite manageable, especially in Eastern Europe. In addition, there is the fact that certain issuers, such as fintechs, are blocked from acceptance by the airlines. Apparently, Wizzair might have missed some sales by not accepting cash, so that they are now back on cash. Incidentally, the sale on board takes place in the name and for the account of the Gategroup, whereby the airlines also earn money, of course.

Eurowings never waived the acceptance of cash. The passengers were always advised that card payments were preferred due to the pandemic, but cash was and is always accepted as long as it is in euros. Long before the corona pandemic, Easyjet preferred cashless payment on board and has been pointing this out for several years using on-board announcements.

Whether or not cash plays a major role in the spread of the coronavirus is extremely controversial. There are studies that state that the risk of infection should be extremely low or nonexistent and others expressly recommend cashless payment. In Austria it is absolutely unusual for a debit or credit card to be handed over to the cashier, but in other countries, such as Germany, the card is often “grabbed” and the cashier wants to put it into the terminal himself. The “contactless” advantage is then also lost. With regard to aviation, attention should be drawn to the fact that almost without exception all flight attendants wear disposable gloves during on-board service, which are then disposed of. This at least minimizes a possible risk to staff, although there are many different views on gloves, but that is definitely a different topic ...