ACT FAST: Or there will be airport chaos, warns IATA

According to IATA, passengers could end up spending almost eight hours in line at airport check-in post pandemic unless governments move quickly to adopt digital processes to manage travel health credentials (COVID-19 testing and vaccine certificates) and other COVID-19 measures.

“Without an automated solution for COVID-19 checks, we can see the potential for significant airport disruptions on the horizon,” says IATA director general Willie Walsh. “Already, average passenger processing and waiting times have doubled from what they were pre-crisis during peak time – reaching an unacceptable three hours.

“And that,” he adds, “is with many airports deploying pre-crisis level staffing for a small fraction of pre-crisis volumes. Nobody will tolerate waiting hours at check-in or for border formalities. We must automate the checking of vaccine and test certificates before traffic ramps-up.”

Walsh points out the technical solutions to prevent the crisis exist. “But governments must agree digital certificate standards and align processes to accept them. And they must act fast,” he says.

IATA believes that impacts will be severe, noting:

• Pre-COVID-19, passengers, on average, spent about 1.5 hours in travel processes for every journey (check-in, security, border control, customs, and baggage claim).

• Current data indicates that airport processing times have ballooned to 3.0 hours during peak time with travel volumes at only about 30% of pre-COVID-19 levels. The greatest increases are at check-in and border control (emigration and immigration) where travel health credentials are being checked mainly as paper documents.

• Modelling suggests that, without process improvements, the time spent in airport processes could reach 5.5 hours per trip at 75% pre-COVID-19 traffic levels, and 8.0 hours per trip at 100% pre-COVID-19 traffic levels.

IATA observes that over the past two decades air travel has been reinvented to put passengers in control of their journeys through self-service processes, enabling enables travellers to arrive at the airport essentially “ready to fly.” And with digital identity technology, border control processes are also increasingly self-service using e-gates.

However, paper-based COVID-19 document check would force travellers back to manual check-in and border control processes that are already struggling even with low volumes of travellers, warns the association.

Solutions

If governments require COVID-19 health credentials for travel, integrating them into already automated processes is the solution for a smooth restart, says IATA. This would need globally recognized, standardized, and interoperable digital certificates for COVID-19 testing and vaccine certificates.

Digitalized certificates have several advantages:

• Avoiding fraudulent documentation

• Enabling advance “ready-to-fly” checks by governments

• Reducing queuing, crowding, and waiting time in airports through integration with self-service check-in (via the internet, kiosks, or mobile phone apps)

• Increasing security through integration with digital identity management being used by border control authorities

• Reducing the risk of virus transmission via the person-to-person exchange of paper documents

Global approach

The G20 has identified a similar solution. The G20 Rome Guidelines for the Future of Tourism call for a common international approach on COVID-19 testing, vaccination, certification, and information as well as promoting digital traveller identity.

The G7 discussions, which commence on June 11, are the next opportunity for leading governments to develop a solution, says IATA, around four key actions by agreeing to:

• Issue vaccination certificates based on World Health Organization (WHO) Smart Vaccine Certificate data standards including QR codes

• Issue COVID-19 test certificates in accordance with the data requirements set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

• Accept digital COVID-19 test and vaccine certificates at their borders

• Where governments require airlines to check travel credentials, governments should accept traveller friendly apps, such as the IATA Travel Pass, to efficiently facilitate the process

“This cannot wait,” says Walsh. “More and more people are being vaccinated. More borders are opening. Booking patterns tell us that pent-up demand is at extremely high levels. But governments and the competent authorities are acting in isolation and moving far too slowly. A smooth restart is still possible. But governments need to understand the urgency and act fast.”