Virgin Atlantic Reveals Plans To Launch 2 Health Passport Trials

On Friday, yesterday, Virgin Atlantic disclosed that they were set to start trials of two COVID-19 related health passports.  The first trials are expected to begin on Monday,  29th March 2021. At the same time, the second app will launch in mid-April.

Given the pandemic, it has become a requirement for passengers to prove their COVID-19 status. However, this isn’t always simple. It would be incredibly difficult for airports or airlines to verify every traveler’s health certificate. To ease the process, airlines continue to find efficient solutions. At the moment, digital health passports are considered to be the solution.

There are already several digital health passports available, and British Airways, Virgin Atlantic’s rival, already has three of its solutions in the trial phase.

The first trial Virgin will launch will make use of artificial intelligence. The British carrier will also start to provide the digital verification system from TrustAssure to only a few passengers from Monday. In the first stages, the airline has said that the trial would focus on passengers on flights from the United Kingdom to the United States of America.

Passengers will be able to upload documents such as the Pre-departure COVID-19 test and even vaccination certificates in the future to the system through a mobile website. In no time, artificial intelligence will validate the result.

The second health passport to be launched by Virgin Atlantic has already been spoken about a lot. The British airline will launch a one-month trial of IATA’s Travel Pass passport.  The app will be exclusive for flights from London to Barbados.

Corneel Koster, Chief Customer & Operating Officer, Virgin Atlantic, remarked on the trials saying,

“We can see a flight path to soon allow the safe restart of international travel at scale, in time for summer.  When the skies reopen, rapid, affordable testing combined with digital health integration will be vital to streamline and simplify the customer experience, make border health checks manageable, and build customer confidence.”