The digital travel pass: A safe return to international travel?
Many air travel restrictions are still in place as a result of the pandemic, and both passengers and airlines are suffering. Could a digital travel pass solve these issues and bring us back to safe international travel?
Many air travel restrictions are still in place as a result of the pandemic, and both passengers and airlines are suffering. With numerous requirements for flight and the need for validating important documents manually, the entire flight process is long, tedious, and taxing on everyone involved. Could a digital travel pass solve these issues and bring us back to safe international travel?
The digital travel pass is “a seamless and secure way for us to ensure that we get back to normal life,” as Lo puts it. This digital pass would allow health information to be securely and accurately captured and validated, circumventing the need for paper documents and manual authorisation for travel. This would not only allow for more efficient air travel, but would also remove the need for many of the travel restrictions currently in place.
Airline customers are presently faced with a lot of anxiety, as they must figure out what the requirements are, and then they must establish if they meet those requirements. Airlines themselves are also feeling the negative effects, as they are subject to many government requirements regarding validating customer paperwork, which is incredibly time consuming and more susceptible to human error. Additionally, detecting fraud on paper documents such as COVID tests and vaccine records is very difficult, which can lead to unfortunate results for everybody.
According to Lo, “the digital health pass could be a big part of reshaping the future,” as customers will find it much easier to travel both for work and for leisure, and airlines can maintain a secure and scalable operation. She also mentions that there are three important aspects regarding the implementation of a digital travel pass: technical readiness, operational readiness, and regulatory readiness. Essentially, this means the technology must be ready to support a digital pass, the labs must be connected with the travel pass applications, and the destination countries must be accepting of the travel pass model.
