The IATA app can restart international flights without quarantine

A new app, launched within a few weeks, could be the first step in resuming international travel without quarantine.

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

The industry body, of which 290 airlines are members, said the tool would provide greater “efficiency” for checking health documentation while speeding up the recovery of the heavily hauled travel sector.

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

“This is the way forward, because if we process manually, we will come to a halt as soon as we start,” he said.

Singapore Airlines will be the first carrier to operate the instrument 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 try until March and April.

IATA is not alone in developing so-called digital health gateways that are meant to start up across the border again. International agencies, governments and technology companies all also appeal. But Careen said he hopes the app will set a “minimum set of requirements” to enable greater interoperability.

“Eventually you will see more people in this space,” he said, “but we set the baseline in terms of what the standard should be.”

With the new app and continued explosion of vaccine, the global airline association estimates that travel could reach around 50% of 2019 levels by the end of this year.

Analysts had expected a larger increase in travel earlier in 2021, but the continued spread of the virus and the emergence of new strains pushed back expectations.

“This is the current economic forecast,” Careen said. “There are a lot of variables at play in it.”