Health passport standards, interoperability critical for revival of international travel

Multiple digital health passport solutions are in development from companies including the International Air Transport Association, AOKpass, Airside Mobile, Yoti, Daon, Ink Aviation and the Commons Project - all aiming to facilitate the resumption of international travel since it came to a virtual standstill due to COVID-19.

But these passports are just one piece of a much larger, more complex puzzle that will need to be solved if there are hopes to return to a world when people can freely move across borders. And two of the biggest pieces of that puzzle are the need for standards – regarding things like testing, vaccines, identity and the exchange of data – and interoperability, which eliminates silos and creates a simple experience for travelers. 

Those were the key themes in a panel discussion Wednesday during a technology showcase virtual event hosted by Plug and Play Tech Center on the topic of digital wellness passports. Following presentations from some of the solution providers, a panel of leaders representing airports, airlines, government and IATA discussed what will be needed to make digital passports operational.  

Dr. Gunther Ofner, co-CEO of Vienna International Airport, says Vienna was the first major airport in the world to provide PCR COVID testing at the airport, and in a pilot with Lufthansa was able to test all passengers traveling on a specific flight without any delay in the boarding process.

But, he says, “What is missing is that this test is accepted from the other side, so that you can immigrate into other countries and that the interfaces are working and are fitting together. And therefore I think we have to mobilize all the energy possible to find common standards and to use these digital instruments to restart air traveling.”

From the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee, Claudia Monteiro de Aguiar says her organization wants to encourage debate and consensus-building so, as travel resumes, there is not the “discoordination” that happened at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We don’t want member states to act unilaterally. We want these kind of solutions to be recognized as common, rapid and cost-effective. ... Now is the time to understand how we will implement it, how it will have data privacy ... and how we will handle this in different transport apps – airports, in ports, rail. We need to not leave anyone behind,” she says.

Star Alliance’s director of digital and technology services, Jeremy Drury, says the next “evolutionary step” will be that customers can choose which digital passport to use to store their COVID credentials, and each one would be accepted by any airline in the network.

“We need to make sure international markets open up, the interline segments open up, and that will require a truly interoperable solution,” he says. 

Several panelists agree that while standalone health passports may be an immediate solution, the experience will be better for passengers if eventually these verification systems are housed within the airlines’ mobile apps.

“Because if you take a British Airways flight or a Virgin flight or KLM flight, you are going to use these airline apps, and all of those tactics need to be embedded into those apps, even if it’s from multiple solution providers, because we should be interoperable,” says Frederic Leger, IATA’s director of airport, passenger, cargo and security products.

“We need to give confidence back to the governments that solutions are compliant. We need to give confidence back to the airlines and airports that the solutions we are introducing are scalable and that we can process a large number of passenger when they are going to come back to travel. And I think for the passengers what is super important is it must be simple.”

Virgin Atlantic chief customer and operating officer Corneel Koster says the airline will be announcing a digital health solution soon, with the view that it is the “MVP [minimum viable product] that can get travel going safely this summer.”

Denver International Airport chief operating officer Chris McLaughlin agrees that the industry should implement digital health solutions quickly and then adjust them as needed over time. 

“Having a standard and seeking pure interoperability is great thing to strive for, and we should and we must, but we can’t wait for it. So we’ve got to take steps and actions that we can right now while we strive for the best solution in the long term,” he says.

The need for governments to act is also urgent, Ofner says, and industry stakeholders should mobilize public discourse about solutions and standards for the reopening of borders, because “only then government and public institutions will act ... [because] without such digital health pass, the recovery will be postponed for a year.

"If we don’t start right now, we will lose this summer.”