SITA makes Digital Travel Declaration free for governments as travel ramps back up

Air transport communications and IT provider SITA has mode its Digital Travel Declaration solution through which passengers can share their health status information prior to travel available for free to governments all over the world for a 12-month period. This comes as efforts remain at full throttle to revive the air transport industry that has been badly hit by the pandemic.

The Digital Travel Declaration solution is offered as a module within SITA’s platform to improve the efficiency of travel processes and address the lack of a common standard to be used by countries in the management of digital health credentials.

SITA said the solution, built on its Electronic Travel Authorization system, and in use since October of 2020, enables passengers to easily complete health declarations in a few quick steps after which a response is given as approval to travel. Passengers can then show the approval to airlines and airport authorities.

Commenting on the rollout of the solution, David Lavorel, CEO of Airports and Borders at SITA, said: “In many cases, today’s onerous health requirements are discouraging travelers from flying or leading to long lines at airports. As an industry-owned organization working at the crossroads of airlines, airports, and governments, we are able to connect the dots and streamline processes around health documentation. Making Digital Travel Declaration freely available to governments will be an investment in the recovery of our industry, and we hope will go some way towards addressing the challenges we all face today.”

There are three configurations offered by SITA, from the bare-bones Entry version through Enhanced to the full-featured Elite. The latter two offer a passport data page using optical character recognition and verification of health status with health pass schemes and national vaccination databases.

SITA recently called for more options for integrating digital health records into travel and identity document products as combining the different credentials could be the only way to reduce waiting times in airports.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometrics  |  credentials  |  digital ID  |  digital travel  |  digital travel credentials  |  health passes  |  identity document  |  OCR  |  SITA  |  travel and tourism