Air Serbia to trial IATA digital passport to restart air travel
Air Serbia will become one of the first airlines in the world to start testing the IATA digital passport (IATA Travel Pass) in cooperation with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as of next month. The mobile application is aimed at restarting air travel and reopening borders without quarantine requirements. It will inform passengers on what tests, vaccines and other measures they require prior to travel, details on where they can get tested and give them the ability to share their tests and vaccination results in a verifiable, safe and privacy-protecting manner. The Belgrade-based Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Serums "Torlak" is also working jointly with IATA in order to successfully trial the program. The Travel Pass will initially be trialled from April on flights between Belgrade and Zurich. It will last several weeks and passengers will be invited to participate.
In addition to Air Serbia, the digital passport is being tested by Air New Zealand, Qantas, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Gulf Air, ANA, Rwand Air, Copa Airlines, IAG group airlines and airBaltic. “We are proud to be among the first in the world to test the digital passport. Once again, we have confirmed our dedication to protecting the safety, health and well-being of passengers, as well as to creating an integrated and seamless user experience”, Air Serbia’s CEO, Duncan Naysmith, said. He added, “This innovative IATA solution is an extraordinary initiative, which will provide passengers with the certainty that they meet all necessary requirements to enter different parts of the world. We owe great gratitude to the Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Serums "Torlak" from Belgrade. They will be directly connected with IATA and without their support and collaboration this pilot project would not be possible”.
The IATA Travel Pass is a global and standardised solution to validate and authenticate all country regulations regarding Covid-19 passenger travel requirements. The main priority is to get people traveling again safely. In the immediate term that means establishing confidence in governments that systematic pre-departure Covid-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements. That will eventually develop into a vaccine program. Serbia leads Europe in its vaccination per one million citizens and has the highest rate of people per one million vaccinated with a second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on the continent. Air Serbia’s passengers will have the opportunity to easily and simply create their digital passport. After testing and/or vaccination, national reference laboratories will send protected information into the user’s app in a safe manner. IATA Travel Pass will then compare the necessary requirements for travel with the input user data, and all who meet the conditions for their desired destination will get a green light for travel. The application, as a safe place for storing health information, will not only accelerate the check-in process for flights, but will also create the potential for contactless travel in the future.
Commenting on the development, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Europe, Rafael Schvartzman, said, “We’re proud to work with Air Serbia and make the IATA Travel Pass available in Europe. This is the first step in making European and international travel during the pandemic as convenient as possible giving people the confidence that they are meeting all Covid-19 entry requirements by governments. As borders re-open, IATA Travel Pass will be further enhanced with more capabilities to meet all governments testing or vaccination verification requirements and Air Serbia’s customers will be among the first to have these services”.
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