Flying during the COVID-19 crisis is becoming a little easier with the help of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the new IATA Travel Pass. The pass is now accepted at participating airlines and countries.
- 20 airlines accept and honor the IATA Travel Pass for its passengers. See the list.
- Singapore is the first country to accept the IATA Travel Pass, more countries to follow
- IATA Pass is an initiative by the global aviation group to encourage the opening of borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After 20 airlines accept the new IATA Travel Pass, now also the first country welcomes visitors having the IATA pass.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed Singapore’s acceptance of pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results on the IATA Travel Pass.
From 1 May 2021, passengers traveling to Singapore will be able to use IATA Travel Pass to share their pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results upon check-in with their airline, as well as on arrival at the immigration checkpoints at Changi Airport. This is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and IATA to facilitate seamless and efficient travel through digital certificates of COVID-19 tests.
To re-open borders without quarantine and restart aviation governments need to be confident that they are effectively mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19. This means having accurate information on passengers’ COVID-19 health status.
Informing passengers on what tests, vaccines and other measures they require prior to travel, details on where they can get tested and giving them the ability to share their tests and vaccination results in a verifiable, safe and privacy-protecting manner is the key to giving governments the confidence to open borders. To address this challenge IATA is working on launching the IATA Travel Pass, a digital platform for passengers.
“Having the confidence of an aviation leader like Singapore accept IATA Travel Pass is hugely significant. Ongoing trials put us on track for IATA Travel Pass to be a critical tool for the industry’s restart by delivering verified travel health credentials to governments. And travelers can have complete confidence that their personal data is secure and under their own control. The success of our joint efforts will make IATA’s partnership with the government of Singapore a model for others to follow,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
“We have built upon our long standing and deep partnership with IATA to develop solutions to facilitate travel. This latest collaboration with IATA demonstrates our shared commitment to drive the adoption of digital health certificates and restore international air travel. As we look to safely rebuild the Changi air hub, we will continue to explore other solutions that can provide similarly secure and verifiable means of sharing health certificates for safe international travel,” said Kevin Shum, CAAS Director-General.
Digital health certificates will be a key feature in air travel moving forward. Establishing trusted, secure solutions to verify the health credentials of travellers will be critical in facilitating smooth air travel and safeguarding public health. The IATA Travel Pass is a personal secure digital wallet solution that can be used by passengers to obtain and store their COVID-19 test results from accredited laboratories.
Following the successful trials by Singapore Airlines, the Singapore health and border control authorities will accept the IATA Travel Pass as a valid form of presentation of COVID-19 pre-departure test results for entry into Singapore. The information presented on the IATA Travel Pass will be in a format that satisfies Singapore’s prevailing COVID-19 pre-departure test requirements for entry into Singapore.
More than 20 airlines have announced trials of the IATA Travel Pass.
Airlines trying the IATA Travel Pass
Travelers to Singapore intending to use the IATA Travel Pass should check with the airline they are traveling with for eligibility to use the IATA Travel Pass.
