All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the latest carrier to trial the Common Pass digital health passport to reopen international travel.
The airline is collaborating with The Commons Project and The World Economic Forum to hold the trial, which began on March 29 on the carrier’s Tokyo Haneda-New York route.
Common Pass allows travellers to document and share their Covid-19 testing status and vaccination history while also protecting user privacy. The technology verifies that an individual’s lab test results or vaccination records come from a trusted source and meet the requirements of the country they wish to enter. There will be a simple yes/no answer to whether the individual meets the entry criteria.
Travellers will receive a unique confirmation code that they can show at the airport to board the flight. Common Pass also states that those who lack smartphones will be able to print off a confirmation code and show it at the airport.
Juichi Hirasawa, Senior Vice President of ANA Corporate Planning, commented on the news:
“At ANA, we are constantly looking for ways to make the travel experience safer and more convenient. Our trials of the Common Pass Health application will help us to ensure that these procedures will enable us to simplify international travel while also protecting passenger privacy.”
Cathay Pacific has also this month completed the latest trial of the Common Pass digital health passport on its Hong Kong-Los Angeles route, following a previous successful trial conducted in October last year between Hong Kong and Singapore.
Meanwhile, United participated in a successful trial of the digital health pass between Newark and London last year. Since then, carriers including Jetblue, Lufthansa, Swiss and Virgin Atlantic have trialled the technology.
A growing number of airlines have signed up to trials of other digital health passport apps including the IATA Travel Pass, the Verifly app and AOK Pass.
Indeed, ANA announced that it would trial the IATA Travel Pass earlier this month but has not yet stated when the trial will take place.
For a look at the pros and cons of “vaccine passports”, and the different options being developed, see our recent features:
