SWISS first airline in the Lufthansa Group to trial IATA Travel Pass app

SWISS is to become the first airline in the Lufthansa Group to trial IATA’s new Travel Pass app, which it will do on its Zurich-London Heathrow route from 22 April onwards. The trial marks a major further step in making travel simple and reliable again during the current COVID-19 pandemic. SWISS has also been testing further such concepts since mid-March.

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is to become the first airline in the Lufthansa Group to trial the new Travel Pass app that is being developed by IATA, the airline industry’s umbrella organization. The trials will be conducted on SWISS’s Zurich-London Heathrow route from the end of April onwards.

The new IATA Travel Pass app enables travellers to check up on the latest coronavirus-related entry provisions for their country of destination. It also allows them to have their COVID-19 test results sent directly to the app. This is turn enables the traveller to demonstrate to airlines and authorities that they meet the relevant entry requirements, without having to divulge further information about their personal health. The new app should also bring greater speed and efficiency to the corresponding airport procedures.

The new IATA Travel Pass app meets the strictest data protection requirements. All the user’s health details remain on the app: at no point are they transmitted or centrally stored, which assures the user of total control over all their personal data. The IATA Travel Pass has already been accepted as an official health document for entry purposes by the Singapore authorities.

Standardised parameters essential

“We support all endeavours to make travel simple and reliable again during the coronavirus pandemic,” says SWISS CEO Dieter Vranckx. “Digital health documents like the IATA Travel Pass are making an invaluable contribution to reconciling the demand for mobility with the need for health protection, to make it easier for our customers to plan their journeys with confidence and to restore the trust in travel as a whole. We still consider it essential that consistent, unified and mobility-promoting parameters are established and maintained, along with internationally recognized and standardized processes to deliver digital test and vaccination certifications. This is the only way to ensure that Switzerland can retain the international links that are so vital to the country in economic terms.”

SWISS testing further concepts, too

In addition to the IATA Travel Pass, SWISS is also evaluating the use of further digital solutions such as the EU Green Pass and the CommonPass.

Alongside these options, further trials are being conducted – since mid-March on its Newark (USA)-Zurich route and since the beginning of April on flights from Zurich to Spain and Portugal – under which SWISS travellers can upload their COVID test results to the swiss.com website up to 12 hours before starting their trip. These data will then be verified so that the traveller knows before departure whether they meet the official entry requirements of the country they are flying to. The current trials here should be extended to further SWISS routes, too.

The use of the IATA Travel Pass app and these digital document checks is optional. SWISS travellers are informed of all such options that are available to them in good time in advance of their planned travel.

• ZURICH AIRPORT 14-APR-2021