Page 20 - AAA JANUARY-MARCH 2021 Online Magazine

strict rules about who they are letting into the
country,” adds Goel. “Governments have valid
reasons for doing that as they do not want to
import more cases into their own country….We
have seen enough reports of fake certificates
being produced. Going down the digital route,
where certificates can be traced back to who-
ever has issued them, and having a registry of
labs that are authorized to issue certificates
will help give passengers and governments
the confidence that whoever who is using the
technology has the right kind of certificates
and meets all the requirements to enter the
country.”

Offering Hope
“We are hoping that the functionality will be integrated into airline For an industry whose revival is dependent
apps,” says Vinoop Goel, IATA’s Regional Director Airports and on the resumption of international travel, the
External Relations - Asia Pacific. “We are not looking for passengers formal introduction of the app, which has been
to have the IATA app per se.” developed by the International Air Transport
Association (IATA), couldn’t have come any
IATA is keen to allay privacy fears. sooner. Despite domestic air travel has picked
“ONE OF THE KEY QUALITIES OF THE TRAVEL PASS up noticeably in many countries, international
IS IT HAS BEEN DESIGNED AROUND PROTECTING travel is still on life support as countries, wor-
ried about COVID_19 virus variants, reconsider
PERSONAL INFORMATION,” adds Goel. eased travel polices and continue with quaran-
“ALL THE PERSONAL INFORMATION IS STORED tine restrictions.
ON THE PASSENGER’S PHONE. IT IS NOT A
CENTRALIZED DATABASE; THERE IS NO PERSONAL According to IATA, International passenger
demand in January was 85.6% below January
INFORMATION STORED ON THE CLOUD OR 2019, which was less than the 85.3% year-
ANYWHERE ELSE. IT IS ALL WITH THE PASSENGER; to-year decline recorded in December 2020.
IT IS THE PASSENGER WHO CHOOSES WHO TO International Passenger For carriers in the
SHARE IT WITH.” Asia-Pacific, January traffic plunged 94.6%
compared to the 2019 period, suffering from the
steepest traffic declines for a seventh consec-
Goel believes the introduction of the Travel Pass will help build up utive month. Capacity dropped 86.5% and load
confidence and facilitate the reopening of borders and restarting factor sank 49.4 percentage points to 32.6%,
of aviation. “One of the basic reasons why airlines are not able to by far the lowest among regions. Europe, with
fly passengers to different countries is that governments have very an 83.2% decline in traffic in January versus
January 2019, and the Middle East, which saw
demand fall 82.3%, did comparatively better.
The January traffic for North American carriers
fell 79.0% compared to the 2019 period while
Latin American airlines experienced a 78.5%
demand drop in January, compared to the same
month in 2019.
IATA had expected the industry tp turning cash
positive in the fourth quarter of 2021, but the fall
in numbers has led to a rethink. The organiza-
tion now expects the industry to burn through
$75-$95 billion in cash this year, seething that
will further break the backbone of the industry
unless governments extend relief measures.
“2021 is starting off worse than 2020 ended
and that is saying a lot,” said Alexandre de
Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, in

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