dnata enhances young travellers’ journey

dnata continues to enhance its offering to provide a smooth and memorable experience to young travellers across their airport journey. With an expert team, comprehensive trainings and a specially designed lounge, the global air and travel services provider is setting new standards for the well-being and comfort of unaccompanied minors amid a whopping 30% surge in demand.

Jaffar Dawood, dnata’s Senior Vice President, Airport Operations UAE and MEA, said:  “We take the responsibility of looking after young flyers very seriously. Our mission is to ensure a seamless and enjoyable airport experience, removing the stress from their journey and creating lasting memories in our exclusive lounge. We are proud to have earned the trust of thousands of parents with our safe and reliable services, and will continue to take initiatives to further enhance our offering.”

Highly-trained team
dnata spares no effort in the comprehensive training of its 200-strong team. Its dedicated agents are well-versed in the art of ensuring that unaccompanied minors, aged between five and 12 years old, feel safe and comfortable throughout their airport journey. This entails adeptly selecting appropriate conversation topics and providing informative guidance for a smooth and expected experience for young passengers.

Agents are meticulous in ensuring that all personal documents are correct, right from the identification of the guardian handing over or collecting the minor, to the seamless handover to the cabin crew.

Exclusive lounge
dnata also operates an exclusive, dedicated unaccompanied minor lounge at Dubai International’s (DXB) Terminal 1. The facility provides a safe, comfortable and entertaining space for young travellers to relax and play before their flights.

It operates round the clock and is equipped with entertainment screens and an array of toys to keep young guests occupied. The lounge staff works closely with airline colleagues to ensure unaccompanied minors are in safe hands and arrive at their gate on time.

30% surge in demand
dnata extends its exceptional services to over 145 airline partners at Dubai’s two airports, Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC). In this year alone, dnata’s highly-trained agents have assisted over 6,000 unaccompanied minors from check-in to boarding at DXB and DWC. These figures are set to soar even higher, with a staggering 30% year on year increase anticipated over 2022 numbers.

Customers are advised to contact their airlines for further information on the services.

dnata is a leading global air and travel services provider. Established in 1959, the company offers quality and safe ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in over 30 countries across six continents. In the financial year 2022-23, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 710,000 aircraft turns, moved over 2.7 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 111.4 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 1.9 billion.