Global airline body developing COVID-19 'Travel Pass'
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced it is finalizing the development of a digital health pass that will allow travelers to store all vaccination or testing information required by airlines and governments amid COVID-19 restrictions.
IATA, a Montreal-based body that represents many of the world's major airlines, plans to test the "Travel Pass" platform later this year before launching the set of mobile apps for Android and Apple iOS smartphones in the first half of 2021.
"Our main priority is to get people traveling again safely," Nick Careen, IATA's senior vice president of airport, passenger, cargo and security, said in a statement Monday. "In the immediate term that means giving governments confidence that systematic COVID-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements."
The "IATA Travel Pass" incorporates four open sourced and interoperable modules: a global registry of health requirements that enables passengers to find accurate information on travel, testing and eventually vaccine requirements for their journey; a global registry of testing and vaccination centers that allows passengers to find testing centers and labs at their departure location which meet the standards for testing and vaccination requirements of their destination; a "Lab App" that enables authorized labs and testing centers to securely share test and vaccination certificates with passengers; and a "Contactless Travel App" that allows passengers to create a "digital passport," receive test and vaccination certificates while verifying that they are sufficient for their journey, and share those certificates with airlines and authorities to facilitate travel.
The "Contactless Travel App" will also link to a digital copy of the user's passport and other travel documentation.
"Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures," IATA director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement Monday. "The second key is the global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify test data matched with traveler identities in compliance with border control requirements."
ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.