The Airline Passenger Experience Association and SimpliFlying recognized United Airlines for providing a hospital-grade standard of cleanliness and safety during travel. Among the four largest U.S. carriers, United is the first to receive Diamond Certification, the highest in the new APEX Health Safety audit powered by SimpiliFlying.

In order to achieve this certification, United submitted detailed responses for audit against a 58-point checklist covering 10 categories, including things like testing, on-the-ground procedures, contact tracing, strategic partnerships and in-flight measures. United shared proof points for further review by APEX and SimpliFlying experts for each cleaning and safety measure on the checklist.

Diamond Certification means the company’s initiatives were at least 200 points above the gold-standard baseline APEX and SimpliFlying established as the minimum required to ensure passenger safety and wellbeing.

“Since the start of this pandemic, United has been committed to pursuing industry leading safety measures to protect the wellbeing of our customers and employees,” said Sasha Johnson, vice president of Corporate Safety, United Airlines. “This recognition from APEX and SimpliFlying underscores that United will continue to innovate and raise the standard when it comes to preventing the spread of COVID-19.”

The United CleanPlus program and partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and Clorox was one of the many aspects APEX and SimpliFlying highlighted and praised during the certification process.