SIA trials digital verification of Covid-19 test results, vaccine info
Dhaka: Singapore Airlines started trials on the world’s first digital health verification process, to be based on the IATA Travel Pass framework. This will offer customers the ability to securely store and present information related to Covid-19 tests, as well as their vaccination status in the future.
This service is being offered from December 23 to customers traveling on flights operated by SIA from Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. If successful, this could be extended to other cities in the SIA route network.
Customers who take their Covid-19 tests at selected clinics in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur would be given either digital or paper health certificates with a QR code. Airport check-in staff and Singapore's immigration authority would be able to verify the authenticity of these certificates via a secure mobile app and ensure that the customers meet Singapore's entry requirements. Customers without a digital certificate can also present the paper version for manual verification.
IATA's Timatic registry will provide the back-end information on the Covid-19 testing and entry requirements. This is part of the modular Travel Pass solution, which aims to allow travelers to easily and securely manage their travel in line with national requirements for Covid-19 testing and vaccine information.
Singapore Airlines also plans to integrate the entire process into the SingaporeAir mobile app from around mid-2021, again using the Travel Pass framework. This would support the drive towards a secure and convenient industry standard for the verification of Covid-19 tests and vaccinations.
The verification is enabled by an application developed by Affinidi, a Temasek-founded technology company enabling portable and verifiable data credentials.
