Iberia extends IATA Travel Pass trial to Panama flights

• The government of Panama has been the first in Latin America to accept this APP for the digitization of COVID tests, allowing customers to use it for documentation checks upon arrival.
• On 10 April, Iberia became the first airline to test this app between Europe and Latin America on flights from Madrid to Uruguay, and from 19 May, the app may be used for travel to Panama.
• The IATA Travel Pass is a smartphone app air passengers can use to store, manage, and verify their certificates of negative Covid-19 test results, and shortly their certificates of vaccination against the disease.

• Use of the Travel Pass will make transit through airports simpler, quicker, and safer, since it involves no physical contact, and no risk that papers will be rejected at destination.

• The Spanish health care providers Quirónprevención, Recoletas Red Hospitalaria, and Arquimea’s healthcare division are Iberia’s local collaborators in testing the new app.

Starting on 19 May, Iberia will test the new IATA Travel Pass on flights to Panama.  The government of Panama has been the first in Latin America to accept this APP for the digitization of COVID tests, allowing customers to use it for documentation checks upon arrival.

The Spanish airline has been helping IATA to develop the health passport app, which it first tested on a flight from Madrid to Uruguay on 10 April.

The IATA Travel Pass will bring a global framework of consistency, predictability, and security for air travellers, who will no longer have to submit paper documents at airports to prove they are in compliance with the health requirements of the country of destination.

The Travel Pass is a smartphone app for storing, managing, and verifying the health documentation passengers need in order to enter other countries, including certificates of negative Covid-19 test results, and in a second phase, their certificates of vaccination against the disease.

Iberia has contacted customers due to fly on IB6339 Madrid-Panama City on Wednesday, 19 May, to invite them to try out the new Travel Pass.

To do so they must visit the iberia.com website, where they can:

1. Download the app to their IOS smartphones --later in May a version for Android phones will be available.

2. Create an account with a photo to be used for biometric identification, and link it to their passport number.

3. Book an appointment for a Covid-10 test at any of the participating laboratories listed in Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, or Seville, and soon in other Spanish cities.

4. The test results will be sent to the customer and to IATA, which will verify them for health authorities in the country of destination.

5. At the airport of departure, the customer needs only to show the app screen confirming the he or she is “OK to travel”. However, passengers will still have to show other paper travel documents –passports, visas, etc.

For more information about the IATA Travel Pass, visit  https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/travel-pass-mediakit/

Iberia’s Manager of Customers, Transformation, and Systems, Gabriel Perdiguero, commented: “With safety our principle concern, we are betting on technology to re-open borders, encourage people to travel, and get back to normal as quickly as possible. We are confident that digital health passports will play a key role in facilitating mobility, increasing passenger traffic, and making travel simpler via biometric identification and digital technology, for fast and contactless processing of documents.

“We want our customers to take part in Iberia’s ongoing digital transformation from the moment they book their tickets to arrival at their destinations. In this instance, we’re giving our Panama-bound customers an opportunity to try out the IATA Travel Pass.”

Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Airports, Passengers, Cargo and Safety, said: "IATA is delighted that Iberia has extended its IATA Travel Pass trial to Panama. This is a major milestone in the development of this app, since Panama is the first nation in the Americas to accept and authorise this digital health passport for entering the country.

“The use of technology and this type of digital solution to process Covid test results and vaccination certificates will become essential as air travel recovers, since manual processing will become impracticable as volume increases."

Quirónprevención’s Role in Iberia’s IATA Travel Pass Trials

In May, 2020 Iberia signed an agreement with major Spanish healthcare provider Quironprevención to administer Covid-19 tests to its customers on special terms. To date it has carried out some 25,000 tests for Iberia in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Portugal.

Quironprevención is now collaborating in Iberia’s trials of the IATA Travel Pass, conducting tests for customers in Madrid and Barcelona.

Other collaborators are Spain’s Recoletos hospital group and the healthcare division of Arquimea, which has set up Covid-19 PCR and antigen testing facilities at Iberia’s T4 hub in the Madrid airport and the airports of Malaga and Seville.

What’s in the IATA Travel Pass?

Health restrictions and continual changes in standards have increased the complexity of requisites for international travel. In this environment, technology is playing a major role in restoring safe travel, facilitating personal mobility, and reopening air travel.

The IATA Travel Pass app is a global solution with a number of functions:

• It incorporates an up-to-date worldwide registry of national health requisites for incoming travellers, so Travel Pass users can be confident they have the right documents for their country of destination.
• It enables travellers to make appointments for Covid-19 tests at collaborating testing centres.
• It certifies negative Covid-19  test results and vaccinations are report by collaborating centres.
• It enables passengers to store this certified information on their smartphones for fast and contactless presentation at airports.

You can download the video here