There are many reasons why your child might have to fly unaccompanied by a trusted adult. The most common reason is when they are visiting a parent or other relatives and friends during the school holidays.
Many adults find the prospect of navigating airports and boarding procedures nerve wracking and baulk at the prospect of a child managing it alone.
Most airlines have procedures in place to ensure unaccompanied minors are able to travel safely, however parents still need to be aware that although they have handed their child over to the airline, plans can still change – for example if the flight is delayed for an extended period, forced to return or divert. Keeping the adults waiting at the other end updated of any changes can be difficult too.
Air New Zealand can give you peace of mind with their Airband™, an innovative wrist band designed especially for children travelling alone. Every step of the travel process is sent by text to parents. Here’s how it works – when you check your child in as an unaccompanied minor to Air New Zealand, they will be given the Airband™. At each new stage of their journey ie check-in, boarding, landing and pick up, the wristband is scanned by staff and text message updates are automatically sent to up to five nominated people so parents, guardians, drop off and pick up people can all be kept up to date.
During the Christmas period alone around 16,500 children are expected to set off on travel adventures, some even on journeys as long as nearly 22 hours but Airband™ can give those waiting on the ground peace of mind.
Read more about Airband™ here
This sounds like a great idea. I couldn’t really imagine a situation where miss 4 would need to fly alone but this would definitely give me peace of mind 🙂
This would absolutely provide some peace of mind for me. My parents have been asking me to send the kids their way occasionally via plane and I always wonder how that would work as it is often two planes there and two back. I would be much less worried if I knew there was a service keeping me informed along the way!
I dropped my son (18) off at the airport yesterday for his big trip over to Germany for the best part of a year and I cried like a baby when it was time to say goodbye. I cant imagine how hard it would be to watch a much younger child walk through those doors! The airband would be such an amazing way to have peace of mind during such a nerve wracking time!
Wow what an amazing piece of technology and well done Air NZ, this would certainly give me piece of mind so much more if found a situation where my boys had to travel unaccompanied. I wonder if other airlines have similar or plan to? Certainly would give Air NZ an edge if the others dont
This service from air New Zealand sounds great for any parent when they send there child on on a plane especially with the text alerts every step of the way from checked in to boarding. It’s peace of mind for the parents.
My nephew and family have just recently moved to Melbourne much to our disappointment 🙁 I will be forwarding this article on to my brother as it would be great for my nephew to come back for a visit in the holidays when his parents are working.
What a great idea! My son is now 24 (end of this month) and he flew alone once when he was around 7 years old from Dunedin to my Mum’s in Wellington – I stayed at the airport and watched him get on the plane and made Mum call me as soon as he arrived haha. The bands are a fantastic idea which would definitely help keep parents at ease, I think it’s a really stressful thing to to and I don’t think I could do it with my 4 year old daughter! 🙂