Dhaka: Flying during the COVID-19 crisis is becoming a little easier with the help of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the new IATA Travel Pass. The pass is now accepted by participating airlines and countries.

20 airlines accept and honour the IATA Travel Pass for its passengers. Singapore is the first country to accept the IATA Travel Pass, more countries to follow.

IATA Pass is an initiative by the global aviation group to encourage the opening of borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed Singapore's acceptance of pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results on the IATA Travel Pass.

From May 1, 2021, passengers travelling to Singapore will be able to use IATA Travel Pass to share their pre-departure COVID-19 PCR test results upon check-in with their airline, as well as on arrival at the immigration checkpoints at Changi Airport. This is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and IATA to facilitate seamless and efficient travel through digital certificates of COVID-19 tests.

To reopen borders without quarantine and restart aviation governments need to be confident that they are effectively mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19. This means having accurate information on passengers' COVID-19 health status.

Informing passengers on what tests, vaccines, and other measures they require prior to traveling, details on where they can get tested, and giving them the ability to share their tests and vaccination results in a verifiable, safe, and privacy-protecting manner is the key to giving governments the confidence to open borders. To address this challenge IATA is working on launching the IATA Travel Pass, a digital platform for passengers.

"Having the confidence of an aviation leader like Singapore accept IATA Travel Pass is hugely significant. Ongoing trials put us on track for IATA Travel Pass to be a critical tool for the industry's restart by delivering verified travel health credentials to governments. And travellers can have complete confidence that their personal data is secure and under their own control. The success of our joint efforts will make IATA's partnership with the government of Singapore a model for others to follow," said Willie Walsh, Director General, IATA.

Digital health certificates will be a key feature in air travel moving forward. Establishing trusted, secure solutions to verify the health credentials of travellers will be critical in facilitating smooth air travel and safeguarding public health. The IATA Travel Pass is a personal secure digital wallet solution that can be used by passengers to obtain and store their COVID-19 test results from accredited laboratories.