iPhones to carry COVID-19 test results for travellers

Perhaps one day we get to travel again

Replacing everything you once carried, your iPhone (and likely Apple Watch ) will become your digital travel pass carrying flight tickets, documentation and COVID-19 test results, when the International Air Transport Association introduces this in 2021.

Your digital travel pass

This system will be made available for both iOS and iPhone, which makes it possible Apple may choose to work with IATA to enable support for this tool in Wallet.

“IATA Travel Pass is a mobile app to help travellers easily and securely manage their travel in line with any government requirements for Covid-19 testing or vaccine information,” the association explains. “It will also unlock the potential for convenient contactless travel processes from check-in to boarding”.

The IATA Travel Pass is scheduled for release early in the first quarter of 2021 for Android and for iPhone. For iPhone it will use the “Secure Enclave” features of Apple devices and a similar security encryption technology for Android.

IATA says data is encrypted, held only on the device and that travellers control what information is shared with airlines and authorities. The solution also supports GDPR.

The pass should look like this

How it works

The traveller Identification process is compliant with ICAO standards. The process that a passenger would take to securely identify themselves in the IATA Travel Pass uses government issued ePassports to create a digital travel credential as per the standards developed through ICAO. The process has six steps:

1. Download the free IATA Travel Pass to their Smart phone and login
2. Take a selfie with the smart phone
3. Complete a liveness test as instructed by the phone – i.e., move their head, close their eyes in front of the camera as instructed
4. Scan the data on the two lines at the bottom of the passport photo page with their smart phones and scan the data-chip on the passport as prompted by the phone
5. The IATA Travel Pass then matches the photo with the passport data (which contains a digital biometric photo of the passport holder) to verify that (1) the passport belongs to the person in front of the phone and (2) that the passport is genuine and has not been tampered with.
6. The verified digital travel credential is then stored on the passenger’s phone and can be used as their ‘digital passport/ ID’.
7. More information.

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