The novel coronavirus has limited air travel and hit the airline industry hard. A new digital app is designed to simplify air travel. The app, CommonPass, would report your COVID-19 status at the airport.
Through the app, the airlines would know whether you are COVID-free and, over time, whether you have been vaccinated. And, you would be able to fly with greater confidence that your fellow passengers were COVID-free.
Right now, notwithstanding advisories to stay home over the holidays, people have been traveling in droves. They have little protection or assurance that their fellow air passengers are COVID-free. And, the novel coronavirus has been surging.
Moreover, while airlines talk about taking all kinds of precautions to protect the health and well-being of passengers, the CDC and Federal Aviation Administration have not issued any requirements of airlines. It is not at all clear how safe air travel is. That said, Kaiser Health News reports that two recent studies, one out of Harvard and one out of the US Defense Department, suggest that air travel could be safer than grocery shopping and dining out.
To be clear, the studies on air travel safety have their limitations. They assume that everyone is wearing their masks during the entire plane ride. In fact, there are many instances in which people take off their masks for long periods of time. Flight attendants are hard-pressed to insist passengers keep their masks on, especially if they claim to be eating. And, as of recently, most airlines are again selling out the full row of seats, rather than leaving the center seats empty, putting passengers quite close to one another.
With the CommonPass app, people who are tested for COVID-19 might be able to travel without the need to quarantine upon arrival at their destination. It would make life a lot easier for them. Currently, all sorts of different documentation is required, depending upon the place visited.
Some see the CommonPass app as a privacy infringement and a path to discrimination. Governments, airlines, laboratories and others would have access to your testing and vaccination information. But, the tradeoff, as with many privacy issues, is ease of travel and convenience.
As of now, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss International, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are committed to using CommonPass.
In other COVID-related travel news, some airlines are offering COVID tests at the airport or at drive-through locations near the airport or through mail-in. Right now, United Airlines and American Airlines are both doing so.
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