Right from the design stage Travel PassThe International Air Transport Association (IATA) wanted this health pass, designed to make the travel experience more fluid, to be interoperable with other solutions on the market. Compatibility is proving its worth, since The European Union's digital certificate and the UK's NHS COVID Pass can now be downloaded from the Internet.IATA Travel Pass. "A major step forward" as Nick Careen, IATA's Vice President for Operations Safety and Security, pointed out.
This means that travellers holding these digital certificates can import them in one place, and this information may be shared with airlines and border control authorities. The aim is to avoid unnecessary queues at airports and, ultimately, to ensure that air transport gets back on track without too many hitches. To date, some fifty airlines have tested the solution proposed by IATA, including Gulf carriers and a number of Asian and European airlines, including Air France.
On the strength of this example, IATA pushes for more. The association is urging the World Health Organisation to draw up a global standard that could be based on the introduction of the European certificate. " Without it, it is much more difficult for airlines, border authorities and governments to recognise and verify a traveller's digital vaccination certificate.says Nick Careen. The industry is getting round this problem by developing solutions that can recognise and verify each country's certificates. But this is a slow process which is hampering the resumption of international travel. "
In another move to simplify the procedures for verifying digital certificates, on 11 August IATA announced its partnership with Synlab, Europe's leading provider of clinical laboratory services. Unvaccinated travellers will have access to Synlab's international network of 450 screening laboratories and more than 1,600 sample collection points in 36 countries to carry out the covid tests they need to enter either country.
" We are delighted to be working with IATA to make travel as safe as possiblesaid Mathieu Floreani, CEO of Synlab. We have carried out 18 million PCR tests since the start of the pandemic, underlining our ability to deliver on our promises. solid expertise in this area. "Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA, stated that "The IATA Travel Pass aims to make things as easy as possible for travellers so that they can locate certified laboratories and safely receive test results. "Synlab will provide passengers with certified test results. directly on their phonethrough the IATA Travel Pass app. The app then checks the result against the IATA Travel Pass register of national entry requirements to produce an "OK to Travel" status.
