British Airways started a trial of the IATA Travel
Pass, on flights from Heathrow to Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland
on Tuesday.
Once the app has been downloaded onto a mobile device
from the app store, customers need to
create an account and will be presented with the entry
requirements for their destination.
British Airways’ customers can
then book a COVID19 test with an approved provider and the
results will be automatically uploaded into the app by the
laboratory.
The app checks that a customer meets the
entry requirements for their destination and will then notify the
customer to let them know that they are ready to travel.
The
airline’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), has
been working closely with IATA to co-develop the app that is now
being successfully piloted by other global airlines, including
British Airways’ sister airline Iberia.
Sean Doyle, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO,
said, “We are committed to exploring ways to ensure that the
customer journey is as frictionless as possible and sharing our learnings to help the travel industry take off again. We know that digital travel passes are part of
the solution and they will also play a key role in offering those
travelling the reassurance they need before they arrive at the
airport. We hope to be able to offer a customer-friendly digital
option for every British Airways international route that requires
proof of government mandated COVID status documentation.”
British Airways is also currently trialing
digital travel app, VeriFLY, on routes to the US, France, Ireland,
Barbados, Bahamas and Canada, as well as all inbound international
flights. Once a customer has had their travel documentation
certified through the app they will be able to check-in through
either BA's website or the British Airways app and download their
boarding pass before arriving at the airport.
The airline’s customers travelling to Cyprus,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal can now also upload
their negative COVID19 test result and other documentation
directly into BA's website for verification before travel.
Editor's note:
As the above video interview was conducted over the internet, I
would like to apologise that the audio and visual quality are not
up to the same HD/UHD quality that it normally would be. Hopefully it won't be too
long until we are once again conducting exclusive video interviews
in person, but for now we have to make do with what we have. Thank
you.
Subscribe to our
Travel Industry News RSS
Feed. To do
that in Outlook, right-click the RSS Feeds
folder, select Add a New RSS Feed, enter the URL of our
RSS Feed which is: https://www.travelnewsasia.com/travelnews.xml
and click Add. The feed can also be used to add the headlines to your
website or channel via a
customisable applet. Have questions? Please read our
Travel News
FAQ. Thank you.