Etihad extends ‘Verified to Fly’ initiative globally

Etihad Airways has extended its ‘Verified To Fly’ travel document initiative, enabling travellers to validate their Covid-19 travel documents before arriving at the airport, to routes across its global network.

With the formalities out of the way, verified travellers enjoy fast track check-in at the airport through the dedicated Verified to Fly desk for a quicker and smoother experience. Early trials showed that Verified to Fly Guests saw their processing times at the check-in desk almost halved and the average queuing time for all Guests reduced – helping expedite journeys and maintain social distancing at the airport.

John Wright, Vice President Global Airports and Network Operations, Etihad Airways, said: “Verified to Fly has proven hugely popular with our guests, as they get a fast track experience when checking in at the airport if using Verified to Fly. Removing guess work from the process, guests also value the assurance that when they arrive at the airport, they have already met all Covid travel requirements.

“We appreciate these are challenging times for travellers and this has been a key initiative to simplify our guests’ journeys as much as possible,” added Wright.

Launched at the start of June, Verified to Fly has proven a successful tool helping people return to travel, providing passengers with confidence they have the necessary documents to meet government Covid-related travel rules to be allowed to fly. A key benefit of Etihad’s Verified to Fly programme is passengers are only sharing their data with the airline itself, with no third-party involvement.

All Etihad passengers are encouraged to visit Manage my Booking to submit their documents. Once the submission has been checked by the Verified to Fly team, guests will receive a ‘success’ email if their documents meet government requirements. If requirements are missing or not met, the guest will be asked to resubmit or check their documents.