Emirates customers who are travelling from the UAE to EU countries will be able to confidently have smoother travel journeys.

The Emirates airline has been collaborating with Al Hosn National Health System team to enable the readability and recognition of health credentials of travelers with EU verified QR codes, including COVID-19 vaccine administration status and PCR test results, on the IATA Travel Pass.

Emirates customers are required to download the IATA Travel Pass, scan Al Hosn App's Travel Pass QR Code and load the results back to the app. UAE citizens and residents can upload their negative PCR test results and vaccination certificates performed across the country, without visiting any specific labs. This health data is stored in the National Cloud under highest privacy standards and policies that have been set by the UAE Data Protection Law.

The new enhancements help Emirates customers to benefit from the IATA Travel Pass and get their "Ok to Travel" before departure to any EU destination on the network of airline.

Through Al Hosn App, Emirates airline customers travelling from the UAE to the EU will be able to reliably demonstrate their COVID-19 health status, and able to easily enter various venues, attend events or embark on other experiences that either require them to present proof of negative test results or vaccination. This also minimises the use of multiple apps to present testing and vaccination status in the EU.

Adel Al Redha, Emirates' Chief Operating Officer, said, "As part of Emirates' plan to implement digital travel verification and make the travel process more seamless, we're boosting the customer experience across the full travel journey when it comes to the administration and uploading of test results and proof of vaccination, in partnership with Al Hosn. We're always looking at ways to expand the functionality of the tools available to our customers like the IATA Travel Pass. Enabling the readability of COVID-19 testing and vaccination QR codes into the app for customers travelling to the EU is a major step to instil confidence and create greater assurance. Al Hosn has put in tremendous efforts into obtaining equivalency for the EU Digital COVID Certificate system, and we thank them for making the UAE one of the few countries to secure their testing and recognition status across all EU countries for their citizens and residents."

Al Hosn National Health System team said, "Our partnership with Emirates is a great showcase of how important and rewarding it is to build safe, secure, and delightful technological integrations.”

"Emirates is building a great model for safe travel during the pandemic, and we are honoured to be part of it. We thank Emirates for making this collaboration a success and we look forward to furthering our collaborations. As a national project, Al Hosn is hosted on the National Cloud, and we invite all national projects to join us in doing so."

In July, Emirates integrated the Al Hosn National Health System via the National Cloud in its check-in systems, thus helping in quick digital retrieval and verification of COVID-19 medical records. COVID-19 related health information of customers is treated in a highly-secure manner in accordance with data privacy protocols, and are discarded from the Emirates system soon after completing verification.

Emirates was one of the first UAE airlines to trial the IATA Travel Pass and is offering the solution to customers flying to 50 cities across the airline’s network.

 WAM