Cathay Pacific rolls out new travel verification feature in bid to cut check-in times

New ‘Fly Ready’ feature lets passengers submit negative Covid-19 test result, vaccination, hotel booking and ID documents within 48 hours of departure

Passengers can be verified for departure within two hours of using feature, which is eligible for flights from routes such as London, Sydney and Taipei

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Cathay hopes to get passengers to use a paperless mobile health app that stores details of vaccinations and Covid-19 test results. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 8:30am, 9 Nov 2021

Cathay Pacific will allow passengers to verify their travel and health documents in advance, in a bid to slash check-in times and prevent a flight ban triggered by administrative errors.

The airline’s new “Fly Ready” feature lets passengers submit their negative Covid-19 test result, vaccination, hotel booking and ID documents within 48 hours of departure, to be verified by a team of employees to ensure accuracy.

Constantly changing travel rules in the coronavirus pandemic have meant more documents for airline staff to go through, resulting in longer check-in times and passengers having to arrive at the airport several hours earlier.

Cathay says the Fly Ready feature aims to facilitate the check-in process at the airport. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Airlines have warned of travel chaos ahead of Monday’s reopening of the highly profitable Europe-North America route, which has seen bookings fill up.

The Fly Ready feature – which is gradually being rolled out – aims to give passengers “reassurance and peace of mind that all the required documents are in order before they travel … [and] helps facilitate the check-in process with much shorter queuing times, therefore benefiting both our customers and our airport operations”, a Cathay spokeswoman said.