SITA has launched a new Health Protect solution to help airlines, airports, governments, and passengers share information on health tests or vaccinations needed during travel.
The solution has already been trialled by travellers to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a new trial will soon commence at Milan Malpensa Airport.
SITA’s Health Protect will allow airlines and passengers to submit required documents, such as PCR test results or vaccination history with authorities, in a safe and secure manner in line with specific government requirements.
SITA outlines that a key benefit of the solution is to seamlessly integrate with multiple travel pass or health passport schemes, including AOKpass, CommonPass, IATA Travel Pass and SimplyGo, bridging the gap between these solutions and aviation and border processes.
By incorporating Advance Passenger Processing (APP), Health Protect enables authorities to make an informed decision whether a passenger can travel at the point of check-in, improving the safety of all passengers and avoiding costly return flights.
Passengers without the required documentation, or considered high risk, will be unable to check in for their flight, ensuring they do not travel to the airport. By facilitating the inclusion of health pass schemes into existing, proven, and trusted passenger processing systems, Health Protect minimises the operational and technical impact on carriers and ports.
Moreover, at the airport, Health Protect also integrates with the existing airport passenger processing systems to verify the health status of the passenger at each point in the process using SITA Flex touchless passenger flow monitoring technology.
David Lavorel, CEO of Airports and Borders at SITA, said: “We’re excited for the potential of SITA Health Protect to bridge the gap between airlines resuming normal operations and governments’ strong focus on keeping control of Covid-19. Recovery from Covid-19 will take time and is complex but we believe that SITA can play a key role in enabling a safer, simpler travel experience for passengers.”
At the beginning of February, a small group of air travellers flying from Germany and Estonia to the UAE tested the health data platform and the SimplyGo app in a live environment. As part of the trial project, SimplyGo partnered with SITA to make use of SITA Health Protect.
During the trial, travellers obtained a negative COVID-19 result via their SimplyGo app before travelling. The data was then securely stored on the SimplyGo platform to be accessed by airlines and border officials authorising boarding of the plane and arrival at the destination country. Integration with the UAE government systems was made possible through the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) platform delivered by SITA.
