The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport of the first traveler to use the IATA Travel Pass to manage their health data.
“The successful implementation of the IATA Travel Pass in this Singapore Airlines passenger demonstration demonstrates that the technology can safely, conveniently and effectively help travelers and governments manage health data. The importance of this for the recovery of international aviation cannot be overestimated”, said Alexander de Junyak, CEO and CEO of IATA.
Joanne Tan, Singapore Airlines’ Senior Vice President of Marketing Planning, said: “Digital certifications will be important as borders are restored and travel restrictions are phased out worldwide. The successful implementation of IATA Travel Pass reflects Singapore Air’s goal of using secure digital solutions to test health and maintain safe and seamless travel for our customers”.
Passengers of Singapore Airlines flights from Singapore to London during the trial period could use the IATA Travel Pass to:
- Creating a secure digital version of their passport on a mobile device
- Enter their flight details to learn about travel restrictions and requirements
- Obtaining test results and confirming that they meet all the requirements for the trip
“Today’s success is a great gain for many purposes. This gives travelers a department store to help them follow the new travel rules. This shows that governments can effectively manage these exit requirements with full confidence in the identity of the passenger and the veracity of travel documents – which is important while avoiding long queues. And it’s a specially designed application for airlines to manage new travel requirements without getting bogged down in inefficient and inefficient paperwork”, said de Juniac.
Automated processing
“Airlines understand that their ground operations will cease if they have to manage COVID-19 travel requirements – test results or vaccine certifications – with paper documents. The same goes for border authorities. The UK is ahead of other governments in resuming international travel on a larger scale. This real proof of concept should give all governments confidence that the industry has an effective digital solution that will ease the pressure to incorporate medical certificate checks into travel, particularly at borders, and is an opportunity for us to work with the UK government to demonstrate the solution works, and share the results with others as we build a reliable and efficient system that will help the world move again”, said Nick Karin, IATA Senior Director, Airport Vice President, Passenger, Cargo, Security.
Global standards
To get the most out of IATA Travel Pass and avoid confusion and inconvenience to passengers, it is crucial to standardize test certificates or vaccinations and accept them by the authorities. A recent IATA survey of travelers found that 89% agree with the need to apply global standards, and 80% seek to use the mobile application to manage their travel licenses. Last Friday, ICAO moved world standards of vaccination testing / certification one step closer to reality. Subsequent governments must provide a digital certificate of test / vaccination against COVID-19 when people are tested or vaccinated so that they can verify the document on their mobile device. This will ensure the equivalence, mutual recognition and acceptance of COVID-19 certificates for passengers when they travel around the world.