Ethiopian, Africa’s leading airline, is to trial IATA Travel Pass, a digital travel mobile app to enhance efficiency in testing or vaccine verifications and restart travel, the airline announced in a statement sent to 2merkato.com. As travel restarts, travelers need accurate COVID-19-related information like testing and vaccine requirements which vary among countries.
The IATA Travel Pass initiative helps verify the authenticity of test information presented by travelers which is essential for ensuring the safety of passengers while complying with entry requirements of countries. In the future, it will also manage vaccine certificates for travel.
Ethiopian has announced it has gone digital in all of its operations to avoid physical contact and combat the spread of the pandemic and now we embark on this initiative which will allow our passengers to relish unparalleled flight experience.
Regarding the trial of the IATA travel pass, Tewolde GebreMariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said “Digital technology is vital to solving many of the problems that arise from the pandemic. We are glad that we are offering new digital opportunities to our passengers so as to fully and safely restart air travel. Our customers will enjoy an efficient, contactless, and safer travel experience with their travel pass digital passports. As a safety-first airline, we are going to be among the first to implement IATA’s travel pass initiative to facilitate travel. The new initiative will increase travelers’ confidence in travel, encourages governments to reopen their borders, and expedites industry restart."
The Travel Pass will help create a digital passport, receive test and vaccination certificates and verify that they are sufficient for their route, and share testing or vaccination certificates with airlines and authorities to facilitate travel. The digital travel app will also avoid fraudulent documentation and make air travel more convenient.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA Director General and CEO said, “Ethiopian Airlines is helping to lay the foundation for a re-connected world in which health credentials—COVID-19 test results to vaccination certificates—will play a role. IATA Travel Pass securely enables travelers to control verified health credential data while sharing it with airlines and authorities as may be required in the travel process. That’s going to be vitally important when governments are able to re-open borders for travel. As an IATA Travel Pass trial partner, Ethiopian Airline customers will be among the first to experience its benefits.”
Source: Ethiopian Airlines press statement sent to 2merkato.com
