IATA Travel Pass likely to be released in early 2021 to boost air travel

IATA Travel Pass is likely to be released in the 1st quarter of 2021 in order to boost air travel.

International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airlines’ trade body, announced that the IATA Travel Pass, a digital e-health Pass, is slated to release in the 1st quarter of 2021.

The IATA Travel Pass will be able to verify and manage the secure flow of necessary testing or vaccine information among airlines, laboratories, governments and travellers as stated in an official announcement. This is to ensure passenger safety as more and more countries are opening their borders to travellers.

Elaborating more on this, for iPhone, it will use the Secure Enclave features of Apple devices, whereas a similar security encryption technology for Android will be used according to IATA. As per reports, IATA divulged key design elements of the IATA Travel Pass, which will facilitate travellers to securely and easily manage their travel in line with any government requirements regarding COVID-19 testing or vaccine information.

“Testing is the immediate solution to safely reopen borders and reconnect people, which will eventually to transition to vaccination requirements. As such, in both the cases, a secure system will be required to manage COVID-19 vaccination and testing. In such a scenario, the IATA Travel Pass will be a solution that will fill the gap between travellers and governments.”, said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA.

“It is being built with data security, convenience and verification as top priorities.”, he added.

IATA further added that travellers will be in control of their personal information for top-level data security and data privacy. The traveller will be in control what information and and data is shared from their phone with airlines and authorities. It also stated that IATA Travel Pass stores encrypted data, including verified test or vaccination results on the mobile phone of the travelled. No central database or data repository will be storing any information.

What do you think of IATA Travel Pass? Do you support IATA Travel Pass in order to boost tourism and air travel? Let us know in the comments section below.