Integration is designed to help streamline the validation of air travelers' COVID-19 health documentation, reducing friction during check-in, and supporting airlines as the industry works to increase international travel volumes.

IBM and Amadeus announced that they are working together to help meet one of the major challenges facing travel companies today: checking and validating the COVID-19 health documentation of travelers at checkpoints where required.

Traveler ID for Safe Travel: illustrative booking flow (Credit: Amadeus)

As part of that effort, IBM Digital Health Pass is now integrated into Traveler ID for Safe Travel, Amadeus' digital health verification solution. This enables airlines to integrate the use of COVID-19 digital health credentials into their existing reservation and booking system, allowing airline passengers the option to scan or upload documentation to show their health credentials.

As passengers move through the online check-in process, Traveler ID for Safe Travel checks the requirements for that particular trip against destination country regulations. This then prompts passengers with the option to generate a secure COVID-19 digital credential by scanning paper documents or uploading a digital version from their mobile or desktop.

These COVID-19 digital health credentials are then verified using IBM Digital Health Pass, which uses a combination of encryption and blockchain technologies to authenticate COVID-19 health credentials against a global ecosystem of labs, vaccination centers and healthcare providers. Airlines receive a simple status confirming a passenger is ready to fly. This secure approach provides passenger privacy since only the compliance with border entry requirements is confirmed; no personal health information is stored by the airline, IBM, or Amadeus.

"While countries across the globe are beginning to slowly reopen borders to welcome back visitors, specific border entry requirements may vary greatly country to country. The need to check COVID-19 health documentation is causing significant delays during the journey for airlines and other travel providers, as well as the traveler," said Greg Land, Travel and Transportation Industry Lead, IBM. "The integration of IBM Digital Health Pass into Amadeus' Traveler ID for Safe Travel is designed to provide airlines with open technologies they can build into existing digital solutions. This can help airlines safely meet border entry requirements while delivering a smoother customer experience."

"The integration with IBM is a step-change for Traveler ID for Safe Travel. The combination of the IBM Digital Health Pass with our Traveler ID for Safe Travel technology means that COVID-19 health documents can be digitized and read, verified, and authenticated. This avoids cumbersome and time-consuming checks while traveling, and adds further reassurance to airlines and their passengers," said Christian Warneck, VP Safe Travel Ecosystem, Amadeus. "This is another milestone in the collaboration we are driving through our Safe Travel Ecosystem. By working hand in hand with customers and partners such as IBM, we can deliver the capabilities needed by travel providers and travelers to help provide a smooth passenger journey once more."

Traveler ID for Safe Travel is currently live with multiple airlines, with additional airline customers to be announced soon. Traveler ID's digital identity and health verification capabilities are also relevant for other customer groups, including hotels and airports.