Brussels Airlines makes travelling easier with document check at home and interactive travel map

Brussels Airlines wants to make travelling by air easy and accessible again by helping its guests to bring the right documents.

Because of the constantly changing travel restrictions and the many differences in the documents asked by immigration offices in and outside of Europe, travelling abroad requires a lot of paperwork. Since the beginning of the travel restrictions, Brussels Airlines has made many efforts to inform its guests about the necessary documents. The document checks currently performed at the different airports are causing enormous complexity for both customers and airline staff. That is why the airline launches two specific initiatives to inform its guests even better and offers the possibility to verify travel documents at home instead of the airport. That way, travellers can avoid long waiting times at the airport check-in counters.

Document check at home

As of 18 August, Brussels Airlines will allow its guests travelling to France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece to have their necessary health documents checked remotely (after a successful test phase on flights to/from Spain since 11 August). With this new service, the airline wants to make travelling easier and more accessible and limit the queues at the airport check-in counters. Guests eligible for the document check at home will receive an invitation to upload their documents through notification emails sent 6, 3 and 1 days before departure.

Once the documents are uploaded, an encrypted email is sent to a Lufthansa Group service centre, where the submitted documents are checked. Once the documents are approved, the passenger receives a confirmation email and can check in online. If documents are missing or the uploaded documents do not conform to the rules, the service centre will inform the passenger and ask to upload the missing documents. In that case, the passenger will not be able to use the online check-in.

Other destinations may be added in the future, depending on the service centre capacity.

Interactive travel map

In cooperation with Sherpa, Brussels Airlines has launched an interactive map through which travellers can find all relevant information and an overview of the documents they need to carry along while travelling. The goal of the interactive map is to give customers a clear overview of the travel possibilities in Europe and outside and serve as a source of inspiration to rediscover the freedom to travel. With a simple tick box, passengers can indicate that they are vaccinated and see the restrictions per country.

The information sources to keep the map up to date are various government websites and information tools. The map redirects passengers to the respective government website of their destination for the necessary documents and more detailed information.