Airlines, countries, and passengers face ever-changing requirements for Covid-19 vaccination and test requirements and what is real and what is not (there are fake ones around).
IATA has developed an industry-wide solution called Travel Pass that can be used from tests and vaccinations to airlines and countries to check their validity. Now, Singapore has decided to accept IATA Travel Pass.
Here’s the announcement from IATA:
Singapore Accepts IATA Travel Pass
Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed Singapore’s acceptance of pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results on the IATA Travel Pass.
From 1 May 2021, passengers traveling to Singapore will be able to use IATA Travel Pass to share their pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results upon check-in with their airline, as well as on-arrival at the immigration checkpoints at Changi Airport. This is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and IATA to facilitate seamless and efficient travel through digital certificates of COVID-19 tests.
“Having the confidence of an aviation leader like Singapore accept IATA Travel Pass is hugely significant. Ongoing trials put us on track for IATA Travel Pass to be a critical tool for the industry’s restart by delivering verified travel health credentials to governments. And travelers can have complete confidence that their personal data is secure and under their own control. The success of our joint efforts will make IATA’s partnership with the government of Singapore a model for others to follow,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
“We have built upon our long standing and deep partnership with IATA to develop solutions to facilitate travel. This latest collaboration with IATA demonstrates our shared commitment to drive the adoption of digital health certificates and restore international air travel. As we look to safely rebuild the Changi air hub, we will continue to explore other solutions that can provide similarly secure and verifiable means of sharing health certificates for safe international travel,” said Kevin Shum, CAAS Director-General.
Digital health certificates will be a key feature in air travel moving forward. Establishing trusted, secure solutions to verify the health credentials of travellers will be critical in facilitating smooth air travel and safeguarding public health. The IATA Travel Pass is a personal secure digital wallet solution that can be used by passengers to obtain and store their COVID-19 test results from accredited laboratories.
Following the successful trials by Singapore Airlines, the Singapore health and border control authorities will accept the IATA Travel Pass as a valid form of presentation of COVID-19 pre-departure test results for entry into Singapore. The information presented on the IATA Travel Pass will be in a format that satisfies Singapore’s prevailing COVID-19 pre-departure test requirements for entry into Singapore.
More than 20 airlines have announced trials of the IATA Travel Pass.
Travelers to Singapore intending to use the IATA Travel Pass should check with the airline they are travelling with for eligibility to use the IATA Travel Pass.
Here’s IATA Travel Pass Fact Sheet
Travel Pass Presentation
Some interesting graphics
Conclusion
There are too many issues with this IATA’s Travel Pass, as the slides above demonstrate:
1. The lab must be connected to the app to upload the results
2. The airline must accept the IATA Travel Pass app for result purposes
3. As need governments of the possible transit points and destinations
and what prevents some “fake” labs uploading negative results or vaccination records for tests that never took place? Obviously, paper versions are no more secure.
But the problem with this IATA’s Travel Pass is that it is built entirely based around IATA’s ecosystem, including Timatic that costs airlines money.
