Gulf airlines are at the forefront of the global aviation industry’s efforts to rebound following the dramatic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that five airlines including Etihad Airways, Jazeera Airways and Qatar Airways will implement IATA Travel Pass in a phased rollout across their networks.
These five airlines join Dubai-based Emirates as IATA Travel Pass implementation pioneers.
The announcement, made on the sidelines of the 77th IATA Annual General Meeting being held in Boston, follows 11 months of extensive testing by 76 airlines.
“After months of testing, IATA Travel Pass is now entering the operational phase. The app has proven itself to be an effective tool to manage the complex mess of travel health credentials that governments require. 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,” said Willie Walsh (pictured below), IATA’s director general.
The app offers a safe and secure way for travellers 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 effortlessly with health officials and airlines prior to departure.
This will avoid queuing and congestion for document checks – to the benefit of travellers, airlines, airports and governments.
The announcement comes as IATA reported that air travellers are increasingly frustrated with the Covid-19 travel restrictions.
A survey commissioned by IATA of 4,700 respondents in 11 markets in September demonstrated confidence that the risks of Covid-19 can be effectively managed and that the freedom to travel should be restored.
It said 67 percent of respondents felt that most country borders should be opened now, up 12 percent from the June survey.
It added that 64 percent of respondents felt that border closures are unnecessary and have not been effective in containing the virus (up 11 percent) while 73 percent responded that their quality of life is suffering as a result of Covid-19 travel restrictions (up 6 percent).
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 percent 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.
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