Health passport: are we traveling again?

Will we travel again? And if so, will we need a health passport?

Now, a year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems clear that, in order to reopen borders without quarantine and restart aviation, governments need to be confident that they can effectively reduce the risk of importing the virus. We have seen this several times throughout the ups and downs of the pandemic: without a definitive vaccine solution, the virus surges with unstoppable spikes in infections (even if, unfortunately, they are predictable).

One of the options being considered for the reopening and the future of travel is the development of a health passport able to inform airlines about passengers’ health status.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is an international organization of airlines. In an interesting article, it addressed the topic of the health passport. IATA argues that informing passengers about which tests, vaccines, and other measures they need before taking a trip, telling them where they can get tested, and giving them the possibility to share their results in a verifiable, secure, and privacy-protecting way is the key to giving governments the confidence to reopen borders.

To address this challenge, IATA and other companies are working on launching several health passports. There are different types, in digital format, currently under development or being tested:

IATA Travel Pass

IATA (International Air Transport Association), the leading trade association for air transport, is perhaps further ahead than anyone else with its IATA Travel Pass. It has been in the works since November and is a digital travel pass that works through an app to be downloaded onto your smartphone. It can certify or share your negative Covid-19 test result or proof of vaccination, as well as provide information on the entry requirements of different countries. Two airlines, Emirates and Etihad, will be the first to use it: Emirates will launch the first trial phase at its Dubai hub starting from April 1, while Etihad will begin testing it on some flights within the first quarter of this year.

CommonPass

CommonPass is developed by The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum. It currently certifies a negative Covid-19 test result in digital format, but will soon also support vaccination certificates. According to the Financial Times, within a few weeks United Airlines, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, and Swiss are expected to be ready to use it on flights between New York, Boston, London, and Hong Kong.
 

AOKPass

It is already operational in Italy as well, AOKPass, an app created through a collaboration between the International Chamber of Commerce, International SOS, and SGS. It provides digital certification of a completed Covid-19 test directly on your smartphone, helping to speed up boarding procedures. It debuted on routes between Japan and Singapore, and is currently used at Fiumicino Airport on experimental Covid-tested flights to the United States.

Digital Health Pass

IBM’s Digital Health Pass project looks not only at the travel industry but also at the world of events, both sporting and cultural. The goal is to create a globally recognized standard that can be used not only by airlines and airport companies, but also by businesses organizing concerts as well as major sporting events to guarantee safe access.

Vaccination Credential Initiative

The Vaccination Credential Initiative is a personal digital storage protocol for health data where certification relating to Covid-19 tests and vaccinations can also be stored (and shared, if desired). The goal is to “empower individuals to hold an encrypted digital copy of their immunization credentials in a digital wallet of their choice.” The initiative is being led by a number of major technology and nonprofit organizations such as Microsoft, Oracle, Evernorth, Salesforce, Mitre, and Commons Project, but it is still under development.