Flight insurance is more important than ever as pandemic staffing shortages drag on, causing at least 800 U.S. flight cancellations in a single day this week. However, traditional flight insurance comes with the additional headache of having to file a claim, submit documentation, and wait weeks to months for a clerk to process the case.
The consequences of this error- and inefficiency-prone system are even greater for businesses navigating late or canceled shipments of essential and perishable items, for which compensation delays can substantially compound losses.
Blockchain-based parametric insurance offers an alternative: smart contracts connected to real-world information, like flight data, through decentralized oracle networks. Constituting the blockchain industry’s leading oracle network and securing tens of billions of dollars in smart contracts, Chainlink Data Feeds are powering immutable protocols that automatically dispense insurance payouts based on predetermined parameters, saving businesses and consumers time and money.
Today, LexisNexis Legal & Professional®, a leading global information and analytics provider, announced it’s making its proprietary flight tracking data available to smart contract developers via Chainlink’s oracle node infrastructure and the market-leading Flight Status API from Cirium. LexisNexis’ Chainlink node will supply data such as estimated and actual departure and arrival times, delays, and cancellations up to three days before and seven days after each flight.
This data can be used to build a variety of web3 use cases related to flight insurance, supply chain management, and risk assessment. LexisNexis’ Flight Status oracle’s initial launch is on the Avalanche blockchain, with launches on additional chains planned for the future.
The integration is expected to improve air travel and shipping by eliminating mounting inefficiencies as well as accelerate mainstream adoption of smart contracts with real-world use cases that have the potential to significantly improve consumers’ everyday lives.
“By bringing this key aviation data on-chain through Chainlink, LexisNexis is accelerating smart contract innovation and supporting the growing adoption of blockchain-based specialty insurance solutions,” said Jeff Reihl, LexisNexis’ Global Chief Technology Officer.
William Herkelrath, Managing Director at Chainlink Labs, added, “Using the Chainlink Network to bring LexisNexis’ flight data on-chain improves supply chain inefficiencies that have arisen over the last several years and ensures greater access to innovative parametric insurance products.”
To learn more about LexisNexis, visit their website and Twitter.