Airline industry launching vaccine passport iOS app

Airline body IATA is launching a digital travel pass, or coronavirus vaccine passport, in an iOS app.

As countries continue to discuss creating and operating COVID vaccine passports, the International Air Transport Association has announced that is launching its version for iPhone in mid-April. Originally planned for March, the digital travel pass will later roll out to Android, and provide vaccinated travellers with faster check-ins.

According to Reuters, IATA Regional Vice President for Africa and the Middle East, Kamil Alawadhi, said the iOS version was expected to launch on April 15.

"But the application will only achieve its success once airlines, different countries, [and] airports adopt it," said Alawadhi. "A huge amount of airlines have requested to be on board."

Reportedly, the UK's Virgin Atlantic airline has committed to trialling the app on its London to Barbados route from April 16. Barbados authorities have agreed to accept the digital pass at its border, making it one of the first countries to not require paper documentation.

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13 Comments

GeorgeBMac 8 Years · 11421 comments

About 3 years ago

At least in the U.S. I wonder where the source for that would come from.

While my name & contact info are on file with my county health department (who administered my vaccination), all i got was an easily duplicated card recording the vaccine.

I suspect that the U.S. dropped the ball on this one. It's likely too late here.

But, maybe not, any physician can see all the medications that I take simply be accessing a nationwide database -- so maybe my vaccination is on there.

But, in any case, I have to wonder about the reliability of such an app.

neilm 16 Years · 1001 comments

Yes, that is indeed the question: how does authoritative and verifiable info get into the app?

Like the poster above, I have a vaccine card from my county health department. They also texted me a persistent link to a state database certifying that I'm fully COVID vaccinated (hey, age has its privileges, even if they're not numerous). A reasonable person would accept those as authoritative — but how does that conclusion make its way into the app? Obviously not just on my say-so, because otherwise every twenty-something looking to party on the Mayan Riviera would be claiming to have had their shots.

Most people won't be aware of this, but the World Health Organization has long sponsored an "International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis," colloquially known as the "Yellow Card," that's used by international travelers to demonstrate their vaccination status. These Yellow Cards are issued by the national health authority in each country, which in the case of the USA is the CDC. Blank cards are available (in bulk only) from the US Government Printing Office as document CDC 731. Small quantities at big markups are sold on Amazon. Yellow Card vaccination history is entered by the medical authority administering the inoculation, signed and officially stamped, and is accepted by border control authorities worldwide.

The IATA app needs an authentication process of some sort prior to travel use.

GG1 7 Years · 483 comments

I would've thought that a superset (or new consortium) of OneWorld, Star, and SkyTeam would be a convenient way to handle this worldwide, as they have the mechanisms in place for this purpose. Not sure about IATA (not doubting them, just not familiar with them). Either way would allow this info to not be tied to any country (to increase adoption).

But I can see that international vaccine verification could be used for much more than travel purposes (and this may be a bad thing).

GG1 said:

I would've thought that a superset (or new consortium) of OneWorld, Star, and SkyTeam would be a convenient way to handle this worldwide, as they have the mechanisms in place for this purpose. Not sure about IATA (not doubting them, just not familiar with them). Either way would allow this info to not be tied to any country (to increase adoption).

But I can see that international vaccine verification could be used for much more than travel purposes (and this may be a bad thing).

The potential advantage of IATA is that it's a 75-year-old airline industry organization to which every international airline you've every heard of — and an amazing number you won't have! — already belongs. A UN agency such as the WHO might in theory be better placed for the job, except that we'd probably all be dead of old age before it happened.

neilm said:

GG1 said:

I would've thought that a superset (or new consortium) of OneWorld, Star, and SkyTeam would be a convenient way to handle this worldwide, as they have the mechanisms in place for this purpose. Not sure about IATA (not doubting them, just not familiar with them). Either way would allow this info to not be tied to any country (to increase adoption).

But I can see that international vaccine verification could be used for much more than travel purposes (and this may be a bad thing).

The potential advantage of IATA is that it's a 75-year-old airline industry organization to which every international airline you've every heard of — and an amazing number you won't have! — already belongs. A UN agency such as the WHO might in theory be better placed for the job, except that we'd probably all be dead of old age before it happened.

Thanks, good info. I wasn't familiar with IATA. If every airline belongs to IATA, that is a better body to do this. I don't think every country belongs to WHO (Taiwan is an example). The IATA gets around these political issues.