If the pilots prove a success, CommonPass will be rolled out to more airlines. The additional cost for implementation could be borne upon travellers in future. Photo Credit: doble-d/Getty Images
Trials have started for CommonPass, a digital health screening tool
that may eliminate the need for quarantines and provide confidence for
governments to open borders that are now sealed by the pandemic.
It's being developed by the nonprofit Commons Project Foundation and
the World Economic Forum. Thirty-seven countries, along with the CDC and
Customs and U.S. Border Protection, are participating in the project.
With CommonPass, travellers would take a Covid-19 test at a certified
lab, upload their results to their phones and complete any additional
health-screening questions that their destination requires. CommonPass
will verify the travellers has met the destination's requirements and
generate a QR code that can be scanned by airlines and border officials.
Dr Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration
and quarantine, said in a statement that the "CDC is eager to learn from
the CommonPass pilot, as it could be one of the many potential tools
that may one day contribute to a safe, responsible and healthy global
air travel experience".
Among private companies involved is Internova. "A verifiable record
of each passenger's Covid testing status will help restore confidence in
travel," Internova Travel Group CEO JD O'Hara said in a statement.
"Internova Travel Group is encouraging all industry groups to support
this effort to open safe and secure travel lanes."
Internova's involvement began early in the process after Commons
Project CEO Paul Meyer approached Certares, Internova's majority owner.
Peter Vlitas, Internova's senior vice president of airline relations,
is bullish on CommonPass, seeing it as superior to unstandardised
emails with test results that are typically within a PDF, which could be
manipulated.
The CommonPass system will be tested this month with Cathay Pacific
and United Airlines on flights between London, Newark, NJ, Hong Kong and
Singapore. (An Internova employee, likely Vlitas or O'Hara, will be on
United's Newark-to-Heathrow flight, Vlitas said.) If initial trials are
successful, CommonPass will be rolled out to additional airlines and
routes.
Although it's unclear at this point who would pay for a broader
implementation, Vlitas said he imagines it would be a cost that airlines
would pass on to travellers.
And looking ahead, he added, if CommonPass should be successful as a
verification of tests, it could later also be used to verify whether a
traveller has been vaccinated.
This story was first published in Travel Weekly.