European diagnostic services provider Unilabs has signed an agreement to integrate its network into the International Air Transport Association's Travel Pass platform, IATA announced on Tuesday.
Unilabs, which has 250 labs across 17 countries and has conducted about 10 million Covid-19 tests since the onset of the pandemic, will upload results into the Travel Pass platform. Those then can be checked against a global registry of health requirements to determine that a passenger is cleared to travel, and passengers can use the app to show their status and digital test certificates to officials as required while traveling.
Unilabs is one of the first major lab groups to integrate into Travel Pass, according to IATA. "As international travel starts coming back, we are ready to do our bit—delivering the fast, effective and reliable Covid-19 test results that will get people moving again," Unilabs president and COO Michiel Boehmer said in a statement.
Etihad Airways, meanwhile, has begun a trial of the Travel Pass app on its flights from Abu Dhabi to each Chicago, New York, Toronto and Washington, D.C. Passengers using the app can book a test at one of two partnering labs in Abu Dhabi, and their test results will be delivered both through the app and the clinics' digital platform.
The trial, set to run through the end of May, is optional for passengers, who still can show Etihad test results via a printed copy rather than the app. As an incentive, participating passengers get both priority access at the labs for testing, faster airport check-in and a Wi-Fi voucher to use in flight.