Last update: August 11th, 2021.
IBM is the latest player in the vaccine passport game — the New York-based tech company is offering the use of the IBM Health Pass app to airlines to avoid bottlenecks at airports.
Vaccine passports are becoming pre-requisites to entrance into most countries, but the lack of standardization is causing chaos at airports.
Airports are reporting major backups at check-in counters and passport control as travelers have vaccine certificates and PCR test results on a multitude of platforms.
IBM is also the company behind New York’s Excelsior Pass and they are using decentralized data management for optimal privacy and security.
How does the IBM health pass work?
Amadeus is a reservation system used by more than 450 airlines and the system now incorporates the IBM Health Pass.
When booking a ticket, passengers are prompted to upload vaccine certificates or make bookings at a testing facility and later upload test results.
Passengers then receive a QR code via email that is scanned at the gate before boarding on either a smartphone or as a printed-out copy.
The email confirms that the passenger’s test results, proof of vaccination or recovery, as well as their country of origin are in line with the destination’s requirements.
IBM Health Pass’ main advantages
The system is able to cross-reference flight details, passenger credentials, and destination requirements, to ensure each passenger is cleared for landing.
This removes the burden from ground staff as regulations are still constantly changing and are different for various passport holders.
Greg Land, the leader of IBM’s transport and travel sector, explains that the app is different in the way it can authenticate credentials to make sure they are valid, instead of just displaying information.
“What that does for the traveler is, if every traveler can get a QR code, it is a valid credential that they can upload and authenticate, even before they check-in for their flight. You reduce the risk of having any bottlenecks or delays at the airports.”
Privacy concerns: IBM & the handling of personal data
Land has addressed privacy concerns and explains that IBM is “using a network to manage an ecosystem of issuers and verifiers” instead of storing valuable patient information.
The system was originally developed for the healthcare industry to manage sensitive patient information and has thus been developed with the utmost care for privacy.
“We’re taking an encrypted token or an encrypted address that says, here’s where [a traveler’s] test result or vaccine record is stored. We’re simply looking at the information to verify that you meet all the requirements,” he says.
Who is using the IBM Health Pass
The latest news on the IBM Health Pass is that the system has been available to all Amadeus affiliates since July 22nd.
The following airlines have implemented the system:
- Air Europa
- Air Corsica
- French Bee
- Air Caraibes
- Air Canada
- Norwegian Air Shuttle
There are other airline COVID passes too, the most widely used one being IATA’s Travel Pass. Airlines trialing their pass include Qatar, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and more.
Amadeus is one of the largest ticketing and distribution software solutions in the airline market. Around 40% of airlines worldwide use their ticketing systems for bookings and now all have access to the IBM Health Pass COVID passport.