IATA to Push Forward Health Passports to Reopen and Give Impetus to International Travel

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A digital health passport will soon become a reality as IATA moves closer to issuing them. They believe that such a step will aid in the reopening of travel and at the same time shall also provide an impetus for it.

The airline companies are already trying their best to ensure that there is a universal testing scheme in place but with the coming of these passports the job shall become more standardised and travel will also become safer.

At the present moment, almost every country in the world is apprehensive about travel and there is a double locking system in place. In such a scenario, only proper testing can help, otherwise all passengers will have to be put under the necessary quarantine and it will only add to the troubles.

The IATA travel pass will ensure that all the safety measures are being adhered to and all the data is verified in compliance to the border control requirements.

This initiative however will require four key steps:

• A global registry for ensuring all the health requirements
• A global registry of testing and vaccination centres to defeat the wrong and malicious testing that is taking place
• A Lap App to enable the sharing of test and vaccination certificates with the passengers
• A contactless travel app which contains all the relevant data so that travel becomes hassle-free.

One of the major benefits that this passport will provide is the authenticity of tests being conducted which has become a very major issue today. Another added advantage will be that the passengers will be provided with the correct information on travel and all the requirements that need to be met.

The people travelling will themselves securely provide the test information to the concerned authorities ensuring that there is no problem at either end.

These passes if go according to schedule will be available by later this year and the entire programme should be up and running by the first quarter of 2021.

While vaccinations might come and the pandemic hopefully will be defeated, these health passports will serve a bigger purpose and will be helpful for times to come. They will make travel easier for all passengers alongside making certain of their safety as well.