Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is urging the aviation industry to work with government regulators and health authorities to deploy a standardized and globally accepted digital health certificate within the next year.
“Commercial aviation has begun the long, slow climb out of the travel trough created by the Covid-19 pandemic, but even the most routine international trip is fraught with confusion and frustration about acceptable documentation, testing requirements, and the specter of quarantines, never mind the risk of fake Covid test results or vaccine status fraud,” said FSF president and CEO Hassan Shahidi. “To maximize passenger health safety we need a secure, globally accepted digital tool that enables travelers to upload and carry with them their vaccine status, recent test results, or Covid-19 recovery status, and that will be recognized and accepted wherever they go.”
While a number of countries have implemented digital health certificates and apps, FSF said the adoption has been slow and uneven. As a result, the safety organization worries that this could introduce confusion and require border control and other agents to deal with a wide array of documents to process.
“The only way the industry is going to be able to move forward safely and in a manner that instills confidence…is if all the stakeholders pull together and prioritize development and adoption of these tools,” said Capt. Conor Nolan, chair of the FSF board of governors. “We need solutions that are scalable, interoperable, and that ensure sensitive information remains secure.”
FSF recently published a resource, Guidance on Advancing Covid-19 Risk Mitigation in Air Travel, providing recommendations on passenger health safety.