The path from the curb to your flight is stocked with hurdles during the ongoing global pandemic, but five major airlines are finding ways to ease the burden.
CommonPass, a digital certificate for passengers to show they’ve tested negative for coronavirus, can be used on select airlines beginning in December.
Passengers on some flights operated by United Airlines, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss International Air Lines and JetBlue can use the CommonPass certificate, designed to be an international standard for verifying negative COVID-19 tests.
Proof of a negative COVID-19 status is a requirement to enter some countries and can cut quarantine periods.
The pass – eligible on some flights from New York, Boston, London and Hong Kong – is created by the World Economic Forum and the Commons Project, a Swiss nonprofit.
The groups lauded the functionality, saying the pass could also be used to prove someone received a COVID-19 vaccine and could be expanded for acceptance by cruises and hotels.
The pass does not involve testing; it provides only proof of results and/or a vaccination record.
The hope is for a widely accepted standard, since test results are often recorded on pieces of paper “from unknown labs, often written in languages foreign to those inspecting them,” the project says, with no standard format.
Vaccination records are often listed on paper cards, which can be easily forged, it says.
“Ahead of a vaccine, ensuring customers understand the latest testing requirements to travel is vital to building consumer confidence and the CommonPass solution is an important step towards offering a common international standard,” Corneel Koster, chief customer and operating officer at Virgin Atlantic, said.
On Monday, Australia’s national airline, Qantas, said it would require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination for international air travel. No other airlines have set that standard.
Add comment