In a bid to help speed the lifting of international travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, major US airlines have agreed to support the implementation of a voluntary international contact tracing program for passengers.

Announced Friday, industry trade organization Airlines for America (A4A) says its members – including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines – are committed to collecting contact tracing data from passengers travelling into the United States and transmitting that data to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as an additional layer of protection for the travelling public.

While Delta and United have been doing that since December, most airlines had resisted government efforts to require them to gather passenger information and provide it to health agencies claiming that they don’t have the information on passengers who buy tickets from other sellers such as online travel agencies.

They also argued that gathering the information and making it immediately available to the government would be time-consuming and require costly upgrades to computer systems.

However, now the carriers have agreed to ask customers to voluntarily provide the following key elements to aid in contract tracing:

• Legal name
• Two phone numbers
• Email address
• The address of where travellers will be staying in the US or address of permanent residence in the US.

“The implementation of a contact tracing program for international passengers is yet another measure in our multi-layered approach to mitigate risk and assure the travelling public that both US airlines and the federal government are prioritizing the health and safety of passengers and crew,” said Airlines for America President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio.

He added, “We are hopeful that this measure, coupled with existing testing requirements for passengers flying to the US, will lead policymakers to lift travel restrictions so that international travel can resume, and the social and economic benefits of that travel can be realized.”

Although the requests are only voluntary, United Airlines says that since December most of its international customers have provided contact details.

Since the onset of the global health crisis, US airlines have implemented other measures to establish a multi-layered approach to help protect passengers and employees, including face covering requirements, pre-departure health acknowledgement forms, and enhanced disinfection processes.