IATA Travel Pass will be a mobile app to assist passengers easily and securely accomplish their travel in line with state requirements for COVID-19 tests or vaccines. One of the most significant requirements for this is that states need to be trusting that they are adequately mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19. New COVID measures are causing it greatly difficult to process passengers efficiently. The IATA Travel Pass could be a solution that will greatly alleviate this problem.

To help revitalize international aviation, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is in the means of launching its “COVID passport”. The goal of this app is to allow air travelers to present their COVID credentials to airlines and governments in a straightforward method, thus allowing entry into their destination.

As stated on the official IATA website: “Informing passengers on what tests, vaccines and other measures they require prior to traveling, details on where they can get tested and giving them the ability to share their tests and vaccination results in a verifiable, safe and privacy-protecting manner is the key to giving governments the confidence to open borders. To address this challenge IATA is working on launching the IATA Travel Pass, a digital platform for passengers.”

The IATA Travel Pass will be a mobile app, and the iOS and Android launch is slated for the end of March 2021. There is a need to have a global and standardized solution to verify and validate all country ordinances regarding COVID-19 passenger travel requirements.

The first traveler to use the new app to manage their travel health credentials went through London Heathrow.

“The successful implementation of IATA Travel Pass in this trial with Singapore Airlines passengers demonstrates that technology can securely, conveniently, and efficiently help travelers and governments to manage travel health credentials. The significance of this to re-starting international aviation cannot be overstated,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Singapore Airlines became the first to trial the use of this app, following the UAE carriers Emirates and Etihad who also opted to trial the digital health pass. It is expected that around 20 airlines are set to trial the IATA Travel Pass. Airlines also remark that the IATA Travel Pass carries the issue of privacy very solemnly. No passenger information is kept centrally. All data is stored on the passengers’ own devices and only they have the option of whether or not to share said data on their travels.

This is a huge undertaking by IATA in order to travel as safely as possible and to revive air traffic. Hoping that we will as soon as possible be able to travel as carefree as ever, we welcome the appearance of the IATA Travel Pass.

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