Lufthansa Launches M-Pesa payment in Kenya

Lufthansa is continuing to expand its offer high quality and innovative products for the Kenyan market. In the last week the German carrier has added M-Pesa or as it is known in Kenya, ‘Lipa na M-Pesa as its first mobile payment option globally.

Launched in 2007, M-Pesa (M for mobile and Pesa in Swahili for money) is a mobile phone-based banking system, allowing users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money and pay for goods and services using their own device. Heralded as one of the most important innovations in “branchless” banking services during the past decade,  M-Pesa was created by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, the largest mobile network operators in Kenya and Tanzania. Since its arrival in East Africa the platform has expanded to Afghanistan, Albania, India, Romania and South Africa.

“We are proud to offer our loyal customers in Kenya another reason to choose Lufthansa. M-Pesa is a true example of the innovative spirit that has been born here in the Economic Power House of East Africa,” said Tobias Ernst, Regional Manager for Lufthansa in East Africa.

According to Patrick Borg Hedley, Senior Manager Digital Sales – Middle East, Africa and Southeast Europe for the Lufthansa Group, purchasing of tickets using M-Pesa is as simple as any other transaction with the PIN-secured system.

Payment via M-Pesa is but one popular solution Lufthansa has for ticket purchases on LH.com.  . Customers making their bookings on LH.com can also use any of our offline payment solutions. We accept Bank transfer, Cash payment at the Lufthansa office, as well as the popular mobile phone based money transfer solution M-Pesa.

“With M-Pesa, the Lufthansa Group harnesses the simplicity and popularity of a global leader in mobile banking and expands the payment options for ticket purchases on LH.com in Kenya,” he added.

Lufthansa launched flights to Kenya last October, originally offering three weekly to Frankfurt.  On September 1st , 2016 the carrier upgraded its services from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport to four weekly flights operated with the latest Lufthansa long haul product, a three-class configured Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

Read: KCB M-PESA loan disbursements cross KSh10B mark

“As we near Lufthansa’s first anniversary of service from Nairobi, I cannot think of a better gift to the nation’s travel industry than allowing of ticket purchases for flights on board our latest generation long haul products, using M-Pesa,” added Ernst.

The Lufthansa Group has a proud history in Kenya. Beyond Lufthansa German Airline’s service, Swiss International Airlines offers five weekly flights between Nairobi and its Zurich hub, while Lufthansa Cargo has named one of its Boeing 777-200 freighters “Jambo Kenya,” symbolizing the significance of Kenya and the African continent on the whole as one of its most important growth markets for global air freight services.