The airline association has announced that travellers with the UK NHS Covid Pass or EU Digital Covid Certificate can upload these vaccination status certificates to Iata Travel Pass, which can also be used to access Covid-related travel information and create an electronic version of their passport.
The travel pass allows this information to be shared with airlines and border control authorities as a way of proving a traveller’s vaccination status. It is currently being trialled by a host of airlines around the world, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in the UK.
Nick Careen, Iata’s senior vice-president for operations safety and security, said: “Covid-19 vaccination certificates are becoming a widespread requirement for international travel.
“Handling the European and UK certificates through Iata Travel Pass is an important step forward, providing convenience for travellers, authenticity for governments and efficiency for airlines.”
Iata Travel Pass has been designed as a standardised solution for passengers to store, validate and access travel documents, including Covid-19 certificates.
The association is calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to “revisit its work” to develop a global standard for digital vaccination certificates to facilitate a wider restart of international travel.
“The absence of a global standard makes it much harder for airlines, border authorities and governments to recognise and verify a traveller’s digital vaccination certificate,” added Careen.
“The industry is working around this by developing solutions that can recognise and verify certificates from individual countries. But this is a slow process that is hampering the restart of international travel.”
