SWISS Earns IATA Fast Travel Platinum Award for its Self-service Facilities

Thomas Klühr, SWISS CEO and Rafael Schvartzman, IATA’s Regional Vice President Europe

SWISS has been honored with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Fast Travel Platinum Award for its wide range of innovative self-service facilities.

Platinum status in IATA’s Fast Travel programme is only bestowed on airlines that offer at least 80 percent of their passengers self-services as defined by the airline industry’s umbrella association, such as online check-in.

SWISS, which offers its passengers a wide range of such self-service facilities, is the only the second network airline in Europe (after SAS Scandinavian Airlines) to receive the IATA’s Fast Travel Platinum Award.

SWISS CEO Thomas Klühr accepted the prestigious distinction from IATA on Tuesday in a ceremony at SWISS’s Kloten headquarters.

“Tapping the very latest technologies to offer our customers the most comfortable and convenient air travel experience is one of our paramount service priorities”, said Thomas Klühr when accepting the award.

“It’s something we’ve been working on consistently over the past few years. So we’re delighted to receive this IATA Platinum Award, which both confirms to us that we’re on the right track and encourages us to continue along it, too.”

SWISS has been an active member of the IATA Fast Travel program since its inception in 2007. SWISS’s own milestones on the self-service front include the launch of online check-in in 2006, and of mobile check-in in 2010. SWISS also introduced an additional automatic check-in function in December 2011.

A further key development in SWISS’s path to its IATA Fast Travel platinum status was the launch of new self-printable registered baggage labels in August 2015. With this latest innovation, travelers can now equip themselves with all the travel documents they need before arriving at the airport, saving them valuable time there.

This latest self-service option was initially adopted at Zurich and Geneva, but is now available at over one-third of all the points in the SWISS route network.

Worldwide, Fast Travel platinum status is now held by SWISS and eleven other carriers: Alaska Airlines, SAS, Air New Zealand, Hawaiian Airlines, Braathens Regional Aviation, Qatar Airways, Air Canada, Egyptair, Qantas Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, and American Airlines.