Covid passports key to resuming global travel

Bloomberg

Global airline lobby IATA is working on a mobile app that will help travellers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, joining a push to introduce so-called Covid passports to speed up the revival of international travel.
The Travel Pass will display test results together with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules and details on the nearest labs, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The app will also link to an electronic copy of the holder’s passport to prove their identity.
A test program will begin with British Airways parent IAG SA this year before arriving on Apple Inc devices in the first quarter of 2021 and Android from April, IATA said. Travellers will be able to share their status with border authorities or present a QR code for scanning.
“We need to have global rules and standards” on measures like rapid testing and vaccination so there can be a “step forward” for the industry, Pieter Elbers, the head of the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. The health advances “will definitely help to restore confidence in travel.”
Qantas Airways Ltd said a Covid-19 vaccination will be a necessity for its international passengers when approved and distributed. Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce told Channel 9 in Australia he has discussed the idea with other airlines, and it’s likely to become a pre-boarding requirement around the world.
“It’s going to be a common theme across the board,” Joyce said.
While international travel remains in the doldrums amid a patchwork of local restrictions and lockdowns, countries are beginning to embrace testing to shorten or do away with quarantines for arriving passengers. The first vaccines are meanwhile expected to become available in coming months. That’s prompted a spate of technology-led moves to devise mechanisms to monitor travelers’ Covid credentials and combat false claims from people desperate to fly.
IATA’s head of passenger and security products, Alan Murray Hayden, said in a briefing that the group’s aim is to get people into the air again and it would be happy to work alongside other providers.
Travel Pass will be free to travelers and governments, with airlines paying a small fee per passenger to use the service. It will be based on the existing IATA Timatic system long used to verify documents. The app will use block-chain technology and won’t store data, Murray Hayden said.
The industry group has had positive discussions with one government around using the software and expects other nations to get on board, he said.
Though IATA’s plan remains in development, the CommonPass app developed by the World Economic Forum and non-profit Commons Project Foundation has been tested on flights between London and New York, while the AOKpass from travel security firm International SOS is in use in other countries.
Both are in the running for the pending travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore, according to the companies.
United Airlines, which is conducting the US-UK trials, said it would extend Covid-19 testing to flights from Houston to destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Passengers can take a self-collected, mail-in test, allowing them to start their vacation or meetings immediately on arrival.
The race is on to establish a global standard and deploy technology so the travel industry can get back on its feet, International SOS co-founder Arnaud Vaissie said in an interview.“There is massive pent-up demand,” he said. There’s also “tremendous fear about traveling and this is what we are trying to mitigate.”

England offers travellers shorter quarantine with Covid-19 tests
Bloomberg

England said it will chop its 14-day quarantine for arrivals from high-risk countries by almost two-thirds if they take a coronavirus test, easing restrictions on air travel just in time for the Christmas holiday rush.
Airline shares surged after the Department for Transport published the new rules, which will come into force on December 15. England’s self-isolation period will be reduced to five days if a passenger tests negative for Covid-19 on or after the fifth day.
British Airways owner IAG SA gained as much as 6.6%, while EasyJet Plc soared up to 7.3% in London. Irish discounter Ryanair Holdings Plc and Wizz Air Holdings Plc also advanced.
While the announcement is a step forward for an industry battered by the travel slowdown, airlines have been seeking a complete removal of the UK’s quarantine system.
The leaders of major carriers like Ryanair and IAG have roundly criticise the policy and blamed it for making an unprecedented crisis for the industry worse.
The new rules are “a vital first step to reopening the skies in the run-up to Christmas,” Shai Weiss, chief
executive officer of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, said in a statement.