Following a trial
period that began in early October, the “CommonPass” digital health
passport will expand use in December with JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss
International Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic using it for select
flights departing New York, Boston, London and Hong Kong.
The passport
is a collaborative effort of the World Economic Forum, the nonprofit Commons Project
Foundation and public and private partners from 37 countries. The trial in
October was done by Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines on flights
between Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York.
CommonPass
is an app that stores and verifies a traveler’s COVID-19 test status by
assessing whether test results come from a trusted source and whether they satisfy
the screening requirements of the destination. The system delivers a “yes” or “no”
while keeping the health information private.
“Through our
'Safety from the Ground Up' program, JetBlue has been a leader in providing a
layered approach to safety on the ground and in the air, including being the
first U.S. airline to require facial coverings,” says Joanna Geraghty,
president, and chief operating officer, JetBlue.
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“We are
excited to be one of the first airlines in the world to partner with CommonPass
to provide another layer of safety to air travel in the United States and
around the world. Reliable testing, combined with digital health passes, is
another way to restore customer confidence and safely restore air travel.”
Also today
the Airport Council International World, representing 2,000 airports globally,
has joined the CommonTrust Network, which also includes the participating
airlines and a global network of labs, vaccine distributors and health care
providers.
“The members of the CommonTrust
Network are coming together to implement an inclusive global network designed
to empower individuals with digital access to their health information so they
can protect and improve their health, and demonstrate their health status to
safely return to travel, work, school, and life, while protecting their data
privacy,” says Paul Meyer, CEO of The
Commons Project Foundation.
“We welcome collaboration with
key stakeholders across all sectors, including IATA in aviation.”
CommonPass is just one of several digital
health passports in development.
Tuesday IATA announced it will conduct
a pilot of its IATA Travel Pass before the end of this year with launch slated
for the first quarter of 2021.
“Today borders are double locked. Testing is the first key to
enable international travel without quarantine measures. The second key is the
global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify
test data matched with traveler identities in compliance with border control
requirements. That’s the job of IATA Travel Pass,” says Alexandre de Juniac,
IATA’s director general and CEO.
“We are bringing this to market in the coming
months to also meet the needs of the various travel bubbles and public health
corridors that are starting operation.”
Last week Ink Aviation, a provider
of technology solutions to airports and airlines, announced the launch of the
Ink Digital Health Platform in partnership with Tento Health.
The platform allows passengers to
verify their health credentials using options such as biometrics, health wallet
QR codes, physical passports and boarding passes and works with any departure
control system, immigration systems and all self-sovereign digital health
passports.
And International SOS, a medical and
security services company serving more than 11,000 clients globally, has
launched AOKpass, in conjunction with the International Chamber of Commerce.
The app, which uses blockchain technology to store COVID-19 health status, was
tested in September on routes from Pakistan to Abu Dhabi and is expected to
announce more pilots soon.