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SINGAPORE – The flag carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) has begun testing of a new service that will allow faster verification of Covid-19 test results, potentially paving the way for the introduction of vaccine passports.
Instead of manually verifying health certificates to verify their authenticity, immigration staff will be able to scan a QR code using an app developed by a technology company linked to Temasek.
This, in turn, will shorten the time it takes for travelers to go through immigration and improve their travel experience amid the ongoing pandemic, the airline said on Wednesday (December 23).
The new service can also be used to check travelers’ Covid-19 vaccination statuses and potentially act as a kind of vaccine passport, prior to the planned introduction of vaccine-related travel rules by the authorities of aviation from all over the world.
SIA worked with the International Air Transport Association (Iata) on the new service as part of a push to introduce industry-wide standards in reopening borders.
The airline’s acting senior vice president of marketing planning, JoAnn Tan, said: “Covid-19 testing and vaccines will be an integral part of air travel for the foreseeable future.
“We are offering a digital solution that enables easy and secure verification of this information and supports the industry’s safe and calibrated recovery from this pandemic.”
In a Facebook post, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said that the Covid-19 test result and a traveler’s vaccination status “can become very relevant information” for cross-border travel.
On SIA’s partnership with Iata on the digital verification system, Ong said the Ministry of Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) will support the initiative to help make it a regional or international practice.
Currently, most travelers flying to Singapore must take a Covid-19 test within 72 hours of their flight to prove they are not infected.
The test result must be obtained from an accredited laboratory, and verification of this result, including verifications of the test date and the authenticity of the result, is done manually by officials from Changi Airport.
According to the SIA test that begins Wednesday, travelers on their flights from Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur can take advantage of the new service by taking their Covid-19 tests prior to entry at select clinics in the two cities.
The clinics will issue travelers with negative results a digital or paper health certificate with a QR code that verifies the authenticity of the certificate. The code can be scanned by local airport staff and immigration officials using a mobile app developed by the technology company Affinidi, founded by Temasek.
The app can also flag issues as an expired test result.
SIA is working with various organizations, such as the Ministry of Transportation, CAAS, the Immigration and Control Points Authority (ICA) and the Changi Airport Group (CAG) on the trials.
If the tests are successful, the verification service will be implemented on SIA flights from other cities. SIA plans to integrate the pass into its mobile app starting in June next year.
SIA is the first airline in the world to set up such a verification process based on the Iata Travel Pass framework.
Still in development, the Iata platform is intended as an international digital health passport that provides evidence that travelers have been screened or vaccinated against Covid-19.
Iata Senior Vice President of Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security Nick Careen said Wednesday that the partnership with SIA will demonstrate that people can resume their travel with confidence that they are meeting Covid-19 entry requirements in your destination country.
“This will help ensure that SIA clients are among the first to benefit as governments reopen their borders with testing or vaccination requirements,” he added.
CAAS director of airport operations regulation and aviation security Margaret Tan said the tests are an important step in facilitating a return from air travel. He said the authority will work with its partners to adopt such solutions to help air travel rebound.
“It is an innovative approach to ensuring smooth travel while ensuring health and border agencies are assured that passengers have the necessary health credentials to protect public health,” he added.
“We hope that other countries and airlines will consider taking a similar approach.”
Independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation said that the introduction of the digital verification system by SIA will help travelers meet a number of requirements, but will not facilitate the recovery of passenger traffic.
“For this technology to help facilitate recovery, the industry still needs governments at both ends of any flight to agree to an airlift bubble or full reopening bilaterally and also to mutually recognize Covid-19 tests and vaccines.” said Mr. Sobie.
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