Ethiopian Airlines implements Covid-19 travel pass
Ethiopian Airlines has partnered with the African Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (Africa CDC) for the implementation of the African Union Trusted Travel Pass to make continental travel easier and safer amidst the Covid-19 pandemic
Africa CDC has mobilised a broad multi-stakeholder public-private partnership with the help of its strategic partners, with the objective of addressing current challenges posed by citizens' and institutions' difficulty in accessing accurate health information, high costs and inconvenience in cross border travel, and poor data for health policy and biosecurity planning.
The Trusted Travel pass programme will ensure country regulations regarding Covid-19 travel requirements are met with minimal room for error and hassle to the travelling public. Ethiopian Airlines' customers will enjoy a hassle-free travel experience, with their travel pass helping them verify whether their medical information meets the various Covid-19 regulations of their travel destination.
Longstanding tradition of introducing new tech
In an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic and restore passengers’ confidence in air travel, Ethiopian Airlines has been the pioneer in introducing new technologies to make travel contactless and convenient. This latest partnership considerably deepens this longstanding tradition by boosting the safety of passengers and nations alike; and reaffirms Ethiopian's strong commitment to being a major part of the African pandemic recovery effort.
Commenting on the implementation of the travel pass, Getinet Tadesse, Chief Information Officer at Ethiopian Airlines, said: “We are offering new digital opportunities to our passengers so as to fully and safely restore air travel. We are pleased to have introduced a digital platform that will be pivotal in increasing the number of passengers while making air travel safer.”
Avoiding fraudulent documentation
The Trusted Travel pass solution will help to validate test and vaccination certificates and verify that they are sufficient for their route, and share testing or vaccination certificates with airlines and authorities to facilitate travel. The solution will also avoid fraudulent documentation and make air travel more convenient.
Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC, welcoming Ethiopian's pioneering spirit, also underscored how such partnerships are critical in the present context: "The scale of the challenge presented by Covid-19 demands an unprecedented level of both innovation and co-operation, which is why Ethiopian's laudable decision to come onboard Trusted Travel marks a watershed in the continent's ongoing fightback against this pandemic's quest to suppress Africa's development ambitions."
Several health passports have already been successfully used by various airlines, for example, IATA’s travel pass was tested successfully by Singapore Airlines, while JetBlue started using CommonPass app, and Hong Kong airport successfully trialled its health passport.