Let’s face it – for most people, WhatsApp and messaging surfaces have, if not eclipsed email, then certainly pushed it down a rung as the preferred means of communicating.

With this in mind, it’s perhaps a sign of the times that local airline, FlySafair, has announced that its passengers will now have the option of sending their boarding passes straight to their phones via WhatsApp, once they’ve completed the check-in process.

According to the company, this will be especially beneficial to passengers who have not made the booking themselves or in circumstances where passengers have supplied an incorrect contact number during the booking process. Such users will now be presented with an option to provide an entirely new number, which will receive the boarding pass.

In addition, passengers who have made bookings for multiple passengers will have the option to send each boarding pass, individually, to each person’s phone, via WhatsApp.

For those stalwarts who still want to have their boarding pass on every device that has their email on it, certainly handy should one device run out of power, the airline will still enable passengers to email their boarding pass should they desire to. As well, users will also be able to print their boarding pass or download it directly onto their device when they check in online.

However, they will now have a fourth option – to send the boarding pass to a contact number of their choice, via the instant messaging app - which can be availed by clicking on the WhatsApp icon.  

“Over and above providing a low-fare and on-time travel experience, we want to ensure that our passengers have access to a hassle-free experience. And that is what we aim to achieve by enabling our passengers to receive their boarding pass via WhatsApp. Our commitment to provide a solid and convenient experience goes beyond the service our passengers receive in the skies, it begins on the ground,” commented FlySafair’s head of sales and distribution Kirby Gordon.