The International Air Transport Association is developing a digital health pass to prove passengers have tested negative for Covid-19 or have been vaccinated.
Iata disclosed key features of the application, which is called the Travel Pass.
The app could help revive international travel as demand for air travel remains weak despite vaccine breakthroughs. Overall, international passenger demand in October was 87.8 per cent lower than it was in the same month last year, according to Iata.
Travel Pass is a system that both travellers and governments can trust and “is being built with data security, convenience and verification as top priorities”, according to Alexandre de Juniac, Iata’s director general and chief executive.
Here are some of the application’s features:
What is the Iata Travel Pass?
It is a mobile app to help travellers securely manage their journeys in line with government requirements that require testing or information about a person’s Covid-19 vaccine status..
How is Iata building the pass?
Iata is developing the pass in four independent stages.
These are the maintenance of records for regulatory entry requirements and information related to test centres, verified certificate issuances, digital identity and the possibility for passengers to share their test results through their mobile devices.
Iata is also partnering with select laboratories worldwide to securely link test results to the verified identity of a pass holder.
“We are building the pass with one aim ... to help reconnect our world safely,” said Nick Careen, Iata’s senior vice president for airport, passenger, cargo and security.
Is Travel Pass safe to use?
All information, including test results and vaccination reports, will be encrypted and stored on the traveller’s smartphone. Users can control what information is shared from their phone with airlines and authorities.
“By keeping travellers 100 per cent in control of their information, the highest standards for data privacy are ensured … no central database or data repository is storing the information,” Iata said.
How do potential users feel about using the app?
Travellers are willing to share their personal information if it makes travelling safe, according to Iata, which represents about 300 airlines worldwide.
Seven in 10 passengers had concerns about handing over their passport, phone or boarding pass to airline agents, security staff or government officials at airports, Iata said, citing a survey conducted in September.
About 85 per cent of travellers will feel safer using contactless processing facilities at airports and 44 per cent are willing to share personal data to enable touchless processing.
When will the Travel Pass be launched?
The first cross-border Travel Pass pilot is expected within weeks. The worldwide launch is scheduled for the first quarter of next year on both Android and iOS mobile operating systems.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
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The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
