Lufthansa plans to enable fast check-in for customers from Germany. German passengers can access their vaccination certificates directly from the airline’s app.
More than 25% of the German population has now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. For a few days now, German pharmacies, doctors and vaccination centres have begun issuing fully vaccinated individuals with QR codes, which can be scanned to provide access to digital vaccination certificates.
Just in time for the start of the Hessian school summer holidays, passengers with the digital vaccination certificate can check in faster with Lufthansa and receive their boarding pass. Passengers will have to present the digital vaccination certificate, which proves full vaccination protection, either via app or on a printout at check-in at the airport. There, is read and the boarding pass is issued directly and without complications. The German flag carrier states that this ‘eliminates the need to take various papers and proofs to the airport’.
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The airline says that it also makes it much more difficult to misuse forged vaccination certificates, as the system compares the data from the QR code with the booking and passenger data.
The carrier states that in the future, mobile check-in will also be faster and easier. On selected routes, it will soon be possible to scan QR vaccination certificates with the Lufthansa app or to load them digitally into the app. The app recognizes the QR code and uses this information to create the boarding pass.
Lufthansa says that ‘anyone who is concerned that they do not have the right certificates for the trip can have them checked by a Lufthansa Service Center on selected flights up to 72 hours before departure’. These can be anything from proof of COVID-19 test, proof of recovery from COVID-19 to proof of vaccinations.
The airline is recommending that passengers continue to carry the original printed certificates with them on the trip, in addition to the digital proof, until further notice.
More information on which documents need to be carried, and where COVID-19 tests can be taken for return journeys, can be seen at lufthansa.travel-regulations.com.
Meanwhile, European Union’s digital COVID certificate has launched in 7 EU countries earlier this month, ahead of a deadline of the end of June for them to be rolled out across the bloc.
Featured image by Lufthansa
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