International air traffic has been (partially) stopped for quite some time now. The corona crisis has had an enormous impact on the aviation industry. Restarting air traffic brings with it the necessary challenges in terms of information supply to passengers, the requirements of various governments, but also the requirements for airports and airlines.
Digital corona passport
IATA (International Air Transport Association) has come up with a global solution, the IATA Travel Pass, a digital corona passport. A global standardized way to validate and verify all national regulations regarding COVID-19 for passenger travel. With a mobile application, IATA aims to safely introduce the restart of air travel. The app allows governments to manage passengers’ health credentials, namely what tests passengers have undergone and whether they have been vaccinated. With this, IATA also hopes to counter fraud via forged papers.
The IATA Travel Pass contains four modules that can be combined:
- The passenger receives information on the testing and vaccination requirements for the notified trips;
- The passenger can find COVID-19 testing locations in the area of departure and arrival;
- It ensures secure transmission of testing and vaccination information to passengers;
- It allows the passenger to (a) create a digital passport, (b) verify a test or vaccination, and (c) share the test with authorities to travel. Also, the passenger can easily manage their travel information digitally without contacting third parties.
Safe travel with the IATA Travel Pass?
This initiative will hopefully allow people to travel safely again soon. Meanwhile, the digital corona passport has been tested on various components. On March 15, 2021, the app was used on a Singapore Airlines flight to London where the actual management of health data was also tested. The IATA Travel Pass has been successfully implemented, according to IATA’s CEO Alexandre de Juniac. IATA expects to launch the app in April 2021 for iOS and Android devices.
Whether everything will go as smoothly as IATA hopes remains to be seen. They will now have to gain the trust of governments to open borders without quarantine. Verifying tests and vaccinations of travelers should help. It will also be questionable whether all airlines will participate, as there are (yet to be determined) costs involved. On the other hand, there is an urgent demand within the aviation industry for a cost-effective international solution for safe travel.
An important issue is of course how traveler data will be protected. IATA states that travelers themselves have control over their data and that IATA does not store it centrally. Only the traveler releases the data to the relevant authorities.
Legal questions related to aviation?
LVH Advocaten is a specialist in the field of aviation. Do you have any questions as a result of this article or any other aviation related topic. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
