Emirates begins IATA Travel Pass trials

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The first passengers travelling from Dubai to Barcelona on EK 185 on 15 April trialled the 'digital passport' to verify and share their pre-travel Covid-19 test status with Emirates.

The trials are a step towards making travel more convenient, enabling travellers to manage Covid-19 related documentation digitally, safely and seamlessly throughout the travel experience. In the future, travellers will also be able to share vaccination certificates with authorities and airlines to facilitate travel.

Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ chief operating officer said: "The ability to process passengers’ Covid-19 relevant data for travel digitally will be the way forward. We are pleased to have been pioneers and partner with IATA in trialling this initiative in real-time and soon will be launching other initiatives to further enhance our customer experience."

The IATA Travel Pass mobile app will have an integrated registry of travel requirements to enable passengers to find accurate information on travel and entry requirements for all destinations regardless of their itinerary. Eventually, it will also include a registry of labs – making it more convenient for passengers to find testing centres and labs at their departure location which meet the standards for testing and vaccination requirements of their destination.

The trial is being done on selected Emirates flights from Dubai to Barcelona and London Heathrow to Dubai and will soon be expanded to include other routes.