The digital health passport for travel is on its way – and it’s inevitable. 
Currently, the only disease that requires an official international certificate of vaccination is yellow fever. This is called the “yellow card”, or International Certificate of Vaccination and Prophylaxis, and is managed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
With the coronavirus, the proposed digital health applications based upon the concept of a vaccination certificate would attest one of three things – that the holder has been vaccinated, has tested negative for the virus or perhaps has recently recovered from it. Their use could allow governments to lift some pandemic-induced restrictions, allowing people to travel.
In a statement, IATA said WHO is developing new standards that will make these certificates “vastly more secure and will dramatically reduce fraud”. The IATA Travel Pass will be designed to accommodate these new standards.
Sweden and Denmark announced plans this week to roll out digital coronavirus vaccination passports, reigniting a debate around the use of health documents as a way to ease lockdowns that are crippling the global economy.
Denmark said it would launch a first version of a passport by the end of February, while Sweden expected to launch its digital document by summer, if an international standard can be agreed.
In October, Estonia and the World Health Organisation started a pilot for a digital vaccine certificate, with the Baltic country announcing earlier this year that it had begun testing a separate “digital immunity passport”. 
China has put in place an app-based health code system that uses travel and medical data to give people a red, yellow or green rating indicating the likelihood of them having the virus – and whether or not they can walk around freely.
The “CommonPass” digital health passport, a platform – and app – that stores and stands as proof of a traveller’s Covid-19 test results, is one of the main initiatives underway in this regard.
The CommonPass saves the user’s test results onto their mobile device, along with any other health screening information mandated by the destination country. The pass then generates a QR code, which can be printed or scanned by airline staff to confirm the passenger’s health status. 
Swiss non-profit The Commons Project Foundation created the digital pass, with backing from the World Economic Forum. This week the two organisations joined forces with Airport Council International (ACI) World, who represent almost 2,000 airports worldwide, along with the five participating airlines. 
The CommonPass was first trialled in October on Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines flights between Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and New York. 
The pass isn’t mandatory for travelling, but is the first standardised format for Covid test results to be used this way. It is hoped it will be widely adopted by the public to make travelling easier. 
“The recent digital ‘health pass’ trials, such as CommonPass, are presenting a strong case for using digital technology to deliver harmonised standards in the validation and verification of accredited passenger health data,” said a statement from airline alliances, whose 58 member airlines represent over 60% of world airline capacity.
“As the world works to overcome the pandemic, all countries face the challenge of how to reopen borders for travel and commerce while protecting their populations’ health,” ACI world director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “Key to this will be a globally-harmonised approach underpinned by cooperation and consistency between all players in the aviation industry.”
“The CommonTrust Network and CommonPass will help to foster this consistent approach, especially as it will include more than just the aviation industry.” 
“I am encouraged by how quickly the global travel industry has coalesced around the CommonPass Framework,” said Greg O’Hara, founder of Certares and executive chairman of American Express Global Business Travel. “CommonPass can give travellers the clarity and confidence they need to start moving again.”
Elsewhere, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is partnering with governments and airlines around the world to trial IATA Travel Pass – a mobile app to help passengers easily and securely manage their travel in line with government requirements for Covid-19.
With aviation being the backbone of many economies across the world, IATA thinks the IATA Travel Pass will help give governments confidence that passengers have complied with health requirements enabling aviation to reconnect the region’s economies with each other and to the world. 
In addition to checking travel requirements, IATA Travel Pass will also include a registry of testing and eventually vaccination centres – 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 platform will also enable authorised labs and test centres to securely send test results or vaccination certificates to passengers. This will manage and allow the secure flow of necessary information amongst all stakeholders and to provide a seamless passenger experience.
While health passports could in theory be paper-based or digital, trials have largely focused on digital solutions as inequitable access to the Covid-19 vaccine could incentivise people to falsify papers. 


* The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir