IATA unveils elements of brand-new app, IATA Travel Pass, which aims to make travelling more straight forward for passengers
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has unveiled key design elements of its new travel app, which aims to improve travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IATA Travel Pass aims to help travellers manage their travel in line with any government requirements for COVID-19 testing or vaccine information.
The key design elements include putting travellers in control of their personal information, introducing global standards to ensure verified identity and test or vaccine information, and enhancing convenience and biosafety.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said: “Testing is the immediate solution to safely re-open borders and re-connect people.
“Eventually, this is likely to transition to vaccination requirements. In either case, a secure system to manage COVID-19 testing or vaccination information is critical.
“The IATA Travel Pass is a solution that both travellers and governments can trust. And it is being built with data security, convenience and verification as top priorities.”
The IATA Travel Pass stores encrypted data including verified test or vaccination results on the mobile device of the traveller.
However, IATA stressed that travellers will control what information is shared from their phone with airlines and authorities and that there is no central database or data repository storing the information.
To help verify and manage test results, IATA is partnering with selected and established laboratories to securely link their test results with the verified identity of the IATA Travel Pass holder.
To reduce contact and increase biosafety, the IATA Travel Pass digital identity management module uses the principles of One ID, which this means the Travel Pass will also unlock the potential for convenient contactless travel processes from check-in to boarding for passengers.
According to an IATA study, 85% of travellers said that touchless processing throughout the airport would make them feel safer and 44% of travellers said that they are willing to share personal data to enable a touchless process, up significantly from 30% in June.
Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security, said: “We are confident that we can deliver a complete solution with IATA Travel Pass.
“We are building the IATA Travel Pass so that other solutions serving the same industry re-opening goal can also benefit from it. We want airlines to have a competitive marketplace with the widest range of options that meet their specific needs.”
The IATA Travel Pass is scheduled for release early in the first quarter of 2021 for Android and for iPhone.
For iPhone it will use the “Secure Enclave” features of Apple devices and a similar security encryption technology for Android.
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