Business travel is adrift with covid-19. And the few "travel bubbles" are not changing the situation dramatically. Pending a hypothetical vaccine, several big names in the industry are therefore working on a way to revive the travel business.
There is also a digital health passport pilot project, the CommonPass. The initiative comes from the Commons Project Foundation, a public non-profit organisation based in Switzerland.. This organisation is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Economic Forum.
Putting an end to uncertainty about health status
According to Commons Project, the CommonPass will be offered to air passengers subject to a covid-19 test by a certified laboratory. After uploading their negative covid result onto the application, travellers will fill in various health screening questionnaires that include other information requested by the countries concerned.
Whether the test and the information provided comply with the rules for entry into the country, CommonPass will generate a QR code, equivalent to a travel authorisation. This code can then be scanned by the airline and border immigration services. Passengers without mobile phones can also print out the code.
The project has won the approval and support of numerous public and private partners around the world, including the governments of 37 countries. There is even the very fussy United States Customs and Border Protection as well as the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)the US authority in charge of pandemic management.
For governments, CommonPass provides a reliable means of assessing travellers' state of health. It also makes it easy to change entry conditions in line with advances in knowledge and research, particularly with the arrival of new tests or vaccines.
For passengers, the most important benefit will be to dispel any uncertainties prior to a trip. Uncertainty about the different regulations in force; uncertainty about possible quarantine on arrival in a country.
A CommonPass before the end of the year?
American Express Global Business Travel is one of the latest major travel influencers to lend its support to the initiative. "I am encouraged by the speed with which the travel industry is embracing the CommonPass protocol," said Greg O'Hara, Executive Chairman, American Express Global Business Travel. "CommonPass can give travellers the clarity and confidence they need to start moving again.
Four countries and two companies are actively working on a full-scale test: the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Volunteers selected on the basis of flights London-Heathrow/New York of United Airlines and Hong Kong/Singapore from Cathay Pacific will be testing this new system in the coming weeks.
If the results are convincing, we can expect a rapid introduction of CommonPass. " The aim is to be able to start offering this application on a large scale before the end of the year." says a Commons Project spokesperson.
CommonPass will also be free of charge, good news for travellers. "We are a not-for-profit company. So we're here to help revive the travel industry," adds the foundation's spokesperson.
The digital passport could quickly make travel 'bubbles' or 'corridors' obsolete. The choice of these corridors is often incomprehensible, and their operation is often haphazard. Above all, CommonPass would finally offer a glimmer of normality to a tourism industry that is on its last legs.
