The IATA app could restart quarantine-free international flights

A new app, launching in weeks, could be the first step in resuming quarantine-free international travel.

The International Air Travel Association (IATA) travel app allows governments and airlines to digitally collect, access and share information about the status of the Covid-19 test and vaccination of individual passengers.

The trade association, of which 290 airlines are members, said the tool will make health documentation checks more efficient and accelerate the recovery of the hard-hit travel industry.

“It’s really about digitizing an existing process,” Nick Careen, IATA’s senior vice president for cargo and airport passenger security, told CNBC on Wednesday.

“This is the way forward because if we do manual processing, we will come to an abrupt halt once we start to see a reboot,” he said.

Singapore Airlines will be the first airline to test the tool on an end-to-end London Heathrow route. Thirty other airlines, including Air New Zealand, as well as Emirates and Etihad in the UAE, will be conducting tests through March and April.

IATA is not the only one developing so-called digital health passports to relaunch cross-border travel. International agencies, governments and technology companies are also all participating. But Careen said he hopes the app will establish a “minimum set of requirements” to allow for greater interoperability.

“You’ll eventually see several people in this room,” he said, “but we’re setting the basics in terms of what the norm should be.”

With the new app and the further roll-out of vaccines, the worldwide aviation association can estimates that travel could reach about 50% of its 2019 levels by the end of this year.

Analysts had previously expected travel to increase in early 2021, but the continued spread of the virus and the emergence of new species have pushed those expectations down.

“That’s the current economic forecast,” said Careen. “There are many variables that play a role in this.”