“Once borders reopen, travel is going to look very different, with customers’ health data needing to be verified at check-in,” said the airline’s chief digital officer Jennifer Sepull.
“It’s essentially like having a digital health certificate that can be easily and securely shared with airlines. By having a place to store all your health credentials digitally in one place, it will not only speed up the check-in process but unlock the potential for contactless travel.”
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The Travel Pass smartphone app will give passengers up-to-date information about what tests and vaccines they need to enter their destination. Participating health providers will send verified test results or vaccination certificates directly to the app. Based on the passenger’s itinerary, the app will produce a simple “OK to travel” notification to satisfy both airlines and immigration authorities they meet that country’s COVID-19 health requirements.
Using the app is not mandatory during Air New Zealand’s trial, and the airline said it was still talking to government agencies about how to validate test results and vaccination records. The trial will be for passengers leaving Auckland and those on the return flights from Sydney. New Zealand started its vaccination rollout on February 20 and Australia today.
Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways and British Airways have all said they plan to use the IATA travel pass. Qantas has said it is interested in using IATA’s app but has not made a decision on how it will manage passengers’ COVID-19 requirements.
IATA, the global airline body, is hoping its travel pass system will also give governments the confidence to open the borders to international visitors and start to revive the pandemic-battered aviation industry.
Australia currently has a “one-way travel bubble” open with New Zealand, meaning people can travel without going into quarantine from New Zealand to Australia but not in the other direction.
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