United Airlines Flight 15, on Wednesday, was a remarkable flight from London Heathrow to Newark Liberty International Airport, marking the first transatlantic test of the Commons Project Foundation’s CommonPass. Passengers knew at the time of boarding that everyone had been tested for COVID-19 and had negative results. The trial took place under observation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
What is CommonPass?
CommonPass is a new app that could open the way to bringing back international travel. CommonPass is built on the CommonPass Framework that establishes standard methods for lab results and vaccination records to be certified and enables governments to set and verify their own health criteria for travelers. CommonPass and the CommonPass Framework are being launched by the World Economic Forum and The Commons Project, a Swiss-based non-profit foundation building global digital services and platforms for the common good, in collaboration with a broad coalition of public and private partners around the world, including government representatives from 37 countries across six continents.
How does CommonPass work?
With CommonPass, travelers take a Covid-19 test at a certified lab. The results are uploaded to the CommonPass app, on which health-screening questions that are required by an airline or destination, must be answered. CommonPass verifies the traveler has met all requirements to travel and generates a QR code that airlines and border officials can scan. Volunteers were tested for Covid-19 at London Heathrow Airport Wednesday morning and the results were made available in the CommonPass app. The information was inspected by the airline prior to boarding and by immigration upon landing. CommonPass adheres to tight privacy principles and is designed to protect personal data in compliance with relevant privacy regulations, including GDPR.
The app could bring standardization to current proofs of negative tests from a lab that may be unfamiliar to airline or government officials and could be written in a language unknown to an inspector. CommonPass uses a single format for test results and only uses certified labs. The utility of the app could, in the future, be expanded to verify vaccine records for Covid-19 and additional diseases.
“The COVID pandemic has brought down travel and tourism across the board,” said Troy Miller, Director, Field Operations New York, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). “CBP is happy to observe the efforts and be a part of the solution to build confidence in air travel and are encouraged by this CommonPass pilot.”
U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on the arrival in the U.S. of the first international flight utilizing the CommonPass digital health system to rapidly verify passengers’ COVID-19 status: “The U.S. and global economies simply cannot afford to wait for a widely distributed COVID vaccine for international travel to resume, so innovative technologies and the embrace of best health practices need to provide the way forward. A rapid and secure means of verifying travelers’ COVID status is an important component of that, so we’re excited about the advancement of CommonPass.“
This solution will help restore traveler confidence in air travel with a simple process and results within 30 minutes. It is a good feeling to know that every passenger on the aircraft had just tested negative and that you are not going to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival.
