Iberia’s parent company will be the first airline group to test this passport for coronavirus-free travelers
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is working on a mobile application that will help travelers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, which is one more twist to approach the so-called Covid passports.
The Travel Pass will display the results of the test for the presence of coronavirus along with the vaccine inoculation test, as well as a list of national entry rules and details on the nearest laboratories.
The application will also be linked to a copy of the holder’s passport to prove their identity.
Conglomerate IAG, parent of British Airways and Iberia, will be the first group to start testing it and it could reach Apple devices in the first quarter of 2021 and Android from April, IATA said.
Travelers will be able to share their status with border authorities or present a QR Code to scan.
In this regard, Qantas Airways noted on Monday that a Covid-19 vaccine will be necessary for its international passengers.
IAG will promote the Covid passport to recover international flights
In fact, the head of the airline, Alan Joyce, believes that it will very likely become a requirement for boarding around the world. “It’s going to be a common theme across the board,” explained Joyce.
The passport would save international travel. While international travel remains stalled amid a patchwork of local restrictions and closures , countries are beginning to incorporate tests to shorten or eliminate quarantines for arriving passengers.
To this must be added that the vaccines will still take a long time to arrive, so the strategy is based on implementing the technology to design mechanisms to confirm that one is free of the disease before traveling.
International SOS co-founder Arnaud Vaissie warned in an interview that there is a “tremendous fear of traveling and this is what we are trying to mitigate.”
