The Ethiopian national airline, Ethiopian Airlines, announced Wednesday that it has partnered with the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to ensure the implementation of the “Trusted Travel Pass”, the health certificate created by the ‘African Union (AU) to facilitate and secure travel to the continent in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Trusted Travel Pass program aims to ensure that COVID-19 travel requirements imposed by national regulations are met with minimal margin of error and with as little hassle as possible for travelers, Ethiopian said. Airlines in a press release.
The Africa CDC, which is the AU’s specialized health agency, has established a broad multi-stakeholder public-private partnership with the help of its strategic partners, in order to meet the challenges posed by the need to access accurate health information, and address issues such as high costs, difficulties encountered in cross-border travel, and lack of data plaguing health policies and biosecurity planning efforts.
Ethiopian Airlines communications manager Getinet Tadesse said the Ethiopian airline will offer new digital solutions to its passengers so that air travel can fully resume under safe conditions.
This initiative should be able to meet the needs of passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping them to validate their screening and vaccination certificates before departure.
“As an airline that puts safety first, we strive to make travel safe and transparent, especially regarding the implementation of COVID-19 prevention strategies,” Getinet Tadesse said.
The Trusted Travel Pass mechanism will validate the screening and vaccination certificates, and verify that they meet the requirements of the route taken. It will also allow these certificates to be shared with other airlines and authorities in order to facilitate travel in general.
The initiative also aims to combat fraudulent documents and make air travel more convenient.
John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, underlined the critical importance of such partnerships in the current context.
“The scale of the challenge posed by COVID-19 demands an unprecedented level of innovation and cooperation. This is why Ethiopian Airlines’ laudable decision to join the Trusted Travel mechanism marks a turning point in the continent’s fight against the risks that this pandemic poses to Africa’s development ambitions, “Nkengasong said, quoted by the Ethiopian Airlines press release.