IATA develops mobile apps for coronavirus-era travel

Global aviation body IATA is developing a set of mobile apps to help passengers to navigate COVID-19 travel restrictions and securely share test and vaccine certificates with airlines and governments, it said on Monday.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents many of the world’s major airlines, plans to pilot the Travel Pass platform by year-end and deploy it for Android and Apple iOS phones in the first half of next year.

Airlines are pressing governments to replace traffic-stifling quarantine requirements with systematic COVID-19 testing, with some success.

“Our main priority is to get people travelling again safely,” IATA security chief Nick Careen said. “That means giving governments confidence that systematic COVID-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements.”