[News] Track Your Kids Flying Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand have unveiled a world-first new kid-tracking wristband called Airband, which will provide peace of mind for parents letting their kids travel by air on their own.

The Airband is essentially just a wristband with a special chip embedded and will be scanned at key stages of the journey to trigger text message updates to up to five contacts. All children between 5 and 11 will receive an Airband when travelling solo, while children up to 16 years old can choose to opt-in to the service.

The key stages of the journey include:

• On check-in at the airport to confirm registration
• When boarding the plane
• When their flight has landed and they are handed over to ground staff
• When they are picked up by the designated pick up person

Air New Zealand General Manager Customer Experience Carrie Hurihanganui says Airband is a great 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,” says Ms Hurihanganui.

“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 trialling 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.”

Air New Zealand says the service will be free until the 3rd of February 2016 before it will start to charge $15 per child one-way on domestic flights, and $40 per child one-way on international flights.

For more information please visit: http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/children-travelling-alone-info

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