More major airlines are rolling out the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Travel Pass in phases - Etihad Airways, Jazeera Airways, Jetstar, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian.
This brings up the number of IATA Travel Pass implementation pioneers to six, along with Emirates Airline.
The association made the announcement Oct. 5, 2021, on the sidelines of its 77th IATA Annual General Meeting in Boston, following eleven months of extensive testing by 76 airlines.
“After months of testing, IATA Travel Pass is now entering the operational phase," according to IATA Director General Willie Walsh.
"The app has proven itself to be an effective tool to manage the complex mess of travel health credentials that governments require," he elaborated.
"And it’s a great vote of confidence that some of the world’s best known airline brands will be making it available to their customers over the coming months,” Walsh pointed out.
The IATA Travel Pass app offers a safe and secure way for travelers to check the requirements for their journey, receive test results and scan their vaccine certificates, verify that these meet the destination and transit requirements and share these with health officials and airlines prior to departure.
This will avoid queuing and congestion for document checks—to the benefit of travelers, airlines, airports and governments.
The IATA Travel Pass is a mobile app that can receive and verify a range of COVID-19 test results and digital vaccines certificates.
Currently, vaccine certificates from 52 countries (representing the source of 56% of global air travel) can be managed using the app.
This will increase to 74 countries, representing 85 percent of global traffic, by the end of November.
IATA Travel Pass is expected to play a key role in the aviation industry’s recovery from the impact of COVID-19.
A digitalized solution to manage the paperwork of COVID-19 travel health credentials will support a return to travel when borders reopen.
With many governments relying on airlines for COVID-19 document checking this will be critical in avoiding queues and congestion at check-in as travel ramps up.