IATA nearly ready to pilot its travel pass

Health Pass

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is in the final development phase of the IATA Travel Pass, a digital health pass that will support the safe reopening of borders

Governments are beginning to use testing as a means of limiting the risks of Covid-19 importation when re-opening their borders to travellers without quarantine measures. IATA Travel Pass will manage and verify the secure flow of necessary testing or vaccine information among governments, airlines, laboratories, and travellers.

Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said: “Today, borders are double-locked. Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures. The second key is the global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify test data matched with traveller identities in compliance with border control requirements.

“That’s the job of IATA Travel Pass. We are bringing this to market in the coming months to also meet the needs of the various travel bubbles and public health corridors that are starting operation.”

Combining registries and a digital health passport

IATA Travel Pass incorporates four different parts:

  • Global registry of health requirements – enables passengers to find accurate information on travel, testing and eventually vaccine requirements for their journey.
  • Global registry of testing/vaccination centres – enables passengers to find testing centres and labs at their departure location that meet the standards for testing and vaccination requirements of their destination.
  • Lab App – enables authorised labs and test centres to securely share test and vaccination certificates with passengers.
  • Contactless Travel App - enables passengers to create a ‘digital passport’, receive test and vaccination certificates and verify that they are sufficient for their itinerary

IATA and International Airlines Group have been working together in the development of this solution and will undertake a trial to demonstrate that this platform combined with Covid-19 testing can reopen international travel and replace quarantines. The first cross-border IATA Travel Pass pilot is scheduled for later this year and the launch slated for Q1 2021.

SICPA and the Commons Project launch their own health pass

However, IATA is not the only organisation developing a health passport for travellers. Swiss security company SICPA developed the Certus myHealthPass app, the technology which is currently being trialled by the World Health Organization as the basis for the future digital internal vaccination certificate.

MyHealth Pass is a tool enabling real-time health status management (vaccination status or confirmation of a recent negative Covid test). It is specially designed to ensure secure and anonymous use and verification of certified data.

And the Commons Project Foundation together with the World Economic Forum have started trials for CommonPass, another digital health pass for travellers to securely document their certified Covid-19 test status while keeping their health data private.