THE first flight carrying passengers with a digital health passport showing they don't have coronavirus will take place in July to the Canary Islands.
The islands have been chosen by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) for the trial which is likely to be rolled out to other holiday destinations.
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The plane will fly into the Canaries in July but it hasn't yet been specified which island it will be or where the flight will operate from – although it has been suggested Tenerife could be the destination.
Tourism minister for the islands, Yaiza Castilla, confirmed reports along with Zurab Pololikashvili, director general of WTO.
The pilot flight is a major boost for the Canaries in its quest to become a "worldwide laboratory" for coronavirus safety measures in the holiday industry as a result of the low incidence of the virus.
The mobile application has been launched by Canarian company Hi+ Card, which has been selected by the WTO to launch the digital health passport.
The app will stores medical records and will allow passengers to travel "safely, traceably and with immutability".
Mr Pololikashvili said: "The necessary steps are being taken so that passengers can travel with ease and airlines can, in turn, increase the capacity of their flights, since this application is configured as a digital health passport, covering an expected need for the Canary Islands destination, travellers and airlines, such as having the peace of mind of safely carrying their medical data that certifies them as free of Covid-19."
Antonio López de Ávila, co-founder of Hi+ Card, explained how it worked: "Passengers on the flight will carry a unique digital profile on their smartphones, where a health entity, accredited by the Ministry of Health, uploads medical information.
"This means the possibility of creating false profiles or manipulating medical records is avoided."
This could eventually be rolled out to other tourists destinations looking to introduce health passports.
Greece is looking at enforcing the documents to allow international tourists in, as well as Thailand.
Brits visiting Turkey will need to have a certificate proving they don't have coronavirus to be allowed to visit, according to the government.
The new regulations were announced by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy to be introduced following the pandemic.
Emirates have taken a different approach, with 10-minute coronavirus tests on passengers before they are allowed to board.
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