The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says it expects its digital Covid Travel Pass will be ready ‘within weeks’.
The new pass will take the form of an app and will verify if a passenger has had the Covid-19 tests or vaccines required to enter a country.
It also verifies that they were administered by an approved authority.
Vinoop Goel, IATA’s Regional Director of Airports and External Relations said: “The key issue is one of confidence. Passengers need to be confident that the testing they’ve taken is accurate and will allow them to enter the country.
“And then governments need to have the confidence that the tests that the passengers claim to have is one which is accurate and meets their own conditions.”
Singapore Airlines were the first airline to start trials of the travel pass in December and Etihad, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Air New Zealand are among other airlines currently conducting trials.
“We are currently working with a number of airlines worldwide and learning from these pilots. And the plan is to go live in March,” continued Mr Goel.
“So basically we expect to have a fully functional working system over the next few weeks.”
The paper equivalent to the app is the Yellow Card, a World Health Organization document which confirms passengers have been vaccinated, which is normally used to prove that travellers have had yellow fever vaccinations.
However, IATA says the risk of fraud with paper documents is too great.
Mr Goal said: “This issue has come to the forefront, because there is the risk of fraud with paper certificates.
“We do have a case in the Republic of Korea that does require a paper certificate, so we are working with the government there to ensure they will allow digital certificates to be accepted.”
