ANA streamlines documentation needed on international travel

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is offering a new solution to streamline the international boarding process with the introduction of ANA Travel Ready – a service that accepts and clears all necessary documents prior to departure.

ANA will begin accepting required COVID-19 certifications and other documents on February 7 and the service will be available for flights from Japan to the U.S., Europe, and China that depart from February 10 and onward. Because required travel documents are subject to change for each destination, ANA will work proactively to inform passengers of any changes and take all necessary steps to improve customer convenience.

“The need to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 has fundamentally altered international travel over the past two years, with countries mandating a range of health documents in order to gain entry,” said Masaki Yokai, Executive Vice President overseeing the Operations Support Center at ANA.

“We understand how the various regulations can be complicated for travellers and ANA wants to take all the steps we could to simplify the process. By submitting negative test results, vaccine verification and other documents online in advance of an international flight, passengers can be confident that they are fully approved for entry at their final destination before leaving for the airport.”

ANA Travel Ready will initially be available on 20 flights on 19 routes in total from Tokyo Haneda and Tokyo Narita to the U.S., Europe and China. More routes will be considered in the future. Details of the eligible routes and the start date of the service will be announced on the ANA website. All passengers with reservations for ANA operated flights on the above routes are eligible to participate.

Passengers on eligible routes will receive an email 72 hours prior to departure containing a link to the ANA Travel Ready website. Via this link, passengers can then confirm that they have the latest versions of the documents required for overseas travel in the “Information Regarding Travel from/to Japan and Other Countries” section, and upload the documents. If any documents are incomplete or missing, passengers will then be contacted by email with a request for additional information. Passengers will be notified once all mandatory documents are confirmed, and online check-in will be available 24 hours prior to departure time. Passengers that have checked in and are flying without checked baggage can proceed directly to the security checkpoint.

ANA Travel Ready eliminates the need for document verification at the check-in counter on the day of departure. Passengers are requested to register at least 12 hours prior to departure. However, passengers who have not completed document verification at least 6 hours prior to departure will be required to bring all documents to the check-in counter for verification. In addition, those participating in ANA Travel Ready will still need to go through standard immigration procedures at your destination. Please be sure to bring all documents before departure.