China United Airlines has inked a strategic cooperation pact with and AliPay, the online payment provider subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba.

CUA and AliPay will work together on e-ticket services in both B2B and B2C businesses. AliPay users can log onto CUA's website with their AliPay accounts and pay their bills via AliPay, online banking services or credit cards.

CUA is not the only airline to cooperate with AliPay. Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines have already partnered of AliPay. Through the cooperation, airlines can not only reduce the cost of sales and improve convenience for ticketing services, but the 180 million AliPay users also means a huge potential market to airlines.