(TAN): In line with plans for a common international standard for Covid-safe air travel, flights heading out of the UK will be subject to a new “health passport” next week, reports said. Passengers flying from Heathrow to Newark in the US will be among the first in the world to test the digital health document as part of a trial.
The passengers will take a test at the London airport up to 72 hours before travel. Health screening questionnaires demanded by US border authorities will also be answered by the travellers. The results will then be logged on a smartphone app which can be scanned by airline staff and border officials, with no need for several individual documents, said media reports.
The system, called CommonPass is reportedly backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), and is designed to create a global framework that can be used by countries to demonstrate that passengers are safe to travel. Devised by a Swiss-based non-profit foundation, the system has already been trialled by Cathay Pacific on flights between Hong Kong and Singapore.
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Next week, CommonPass will be used by passengers flying with United Airlines, on the flight between Heathrow and Newark. Officials from US Customs and Border Protection, and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, will observe the project and record its ease of use, said reports.
Mark Burgess, process improvement director at Heathrow, was quoted by inews as saying, “For some time now Heathrow has been calling for the creation of a common international standard and cross-border pilots as these could help governments across the world and the industry to unlock the benefits of testing in aviation.”
