ABU DHABI - 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.

To use the service - which is available for the vast majority of Etihad flights - passengers sign-up by visiting "Manage my Booking" and following the simple instructions to upload and submit their travel documents.

Guests will receive confirmation once their documents have been approved in line with government requirements.

Verified travellers enjoy fast track check-in at the airport through the dedicated Verified to Fly desk for a quicker experience.

Launched in June, the new service has proven a successful tool helping people return to travel, providing passengers with confidence they have the necessary documents to meet government COVID-19-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.

John Wright, Vice President Global Airports and Network Operations at 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-19 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."

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2021.