Air New Zealand Launches Airband Initiative
Air New Zealand is focusing on the safety of children flying unaccompanied with the introduction of Airband – giving parents and guardians the opportunity to follow the steps in their journey.
Children travelling alone on Air New Zealand services will now receive an Airband at check-in as part of the service. The wristband is embedded with a chip which is scanned at key stages of the journey to trigger text notifications to up to five nominated contacts.
Air New Zealand general manager, Customer Experience, Carrie Hurihanganui says Airband is a good example of the airline investing in technology to enhance the customer experience.
“We know that having your child travel on their own can be a nervous time for both children and their guardians. While our staff have always taken great care of children travelling solo, we identified that there was an opportunity to enhance the experience for kids while at the same time giving caregivers further peace of mind and visibility of their journey,” she said.
Hurihanganui added, “We believe this is the first time this type of technology has been used by an airline anywhere in the world for the purpose of providing caregivers greater peace of mind when their child is travelling alone. We have been trialing it across our network over recent months and the feedback from parents and guardians has been very positive with many welcoming the additional reassurance of knowing where in the journey their child is.”
The airline’s new service applies to all children aged between five and 11 who are travelling alone – but those aged up to 16 years can choose to opt in.
The new service is being offered on a complimentary basis through Feb. 3, 2016. Bookings made from this date will incur a fee of $15 per child for each one way New Zealand domestic journey, or $40 per child for each one way international journey applies.
