Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, so many industries were sent into forced retirement. One of these, yet key to the progress of human activity, is the aviation industry. Airlines and their planes have found it hard to resume business in a time when almost everyone is seeking security and comfort home from the virus. In a bid to re-open the skies for resumption of flights, IATA is working on launching the IATA Travel Pass, a digital platform for passengers.
What is the IATA Travel Pass?
IATA Travel Pass is a mobile application that helps travellers to store and manage their verified certifications for COVID-19 tests or COVID-19 vaccines. This will be important for governments that are likely to require either verified testing or vaccination proof as a condition of international travel during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The pass will be free for passengers to download and use.
The IATA Travel Pass will be more secure and efficient than current paper processes used to manage health requirements (the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, for example). This will be important given the potentially enormous scale of testing or vaccine verifications that will need to be securely managed.
The Travel Pass will help people to travel with ease while meeting any government requirements for COVID-19 tests or vaccines. It will help provide governments with the confidence to reopen borders without quarantine.
To reopen borders without quarantine, governments need to be confident that they are mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19. IATA Travel Pass will manage and verify the secure flow of necessary testing or vaccine information among governments, airlines, laboratories, and travellers giving governments confidence in a passenger COVID-19 status.
When will the IATA Travel Pass launch?
The first-cross border pilots are expected to start by the end of 2020 and the iOS and android launch is slated for Q1 2021. Member airlines are already working to bring the product to market. To deliver immediate assistance to the industry, the Timatic enhancements for the global registry of health requirements will be available by end of January 2021.
