Dubai’s Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways have partnered with the International Air Transport Association to introduce a travel pass for passengers who have been inoculated against Covid-19 or have tested negative.
The IATA Travel Pass will be offered on selected flights from Abu Dhabi in the first quarter, state-owned Etihad said on Tuesday. The carrier will extend the pass to other destinations if the initial trial is successful.
Emirates, the world’s largest long-haul carrier, will implement phase 1 of the pass in April to validate Covid-19 tests for flights departing from Dubai.
The United Arab Emirates has administered almost 2 million vaccine doses and has the second-highest rates of inoculations per 100 people globally after Israel.
IATA, the industry group, had planned a test program with British Airways parent IAG SA at the end of last year. And last month, Singapore Airlines started trials on a new digital verification process based on IATA’s Travel Pass Framework.
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