Cathay Pacific completes end-to-end digital health pass trials

The trials involved two flights from Hong Kong to Singapore and vice versa.

Cathay Pacific completed the trials for the use of an end-to-end digital health pass with CommonPass application, using both the testing and vaccination records of the volunteer passengers, which aimed for a “hassle-free international air travel.”

Cathay Pacific, the first airline to complete the trial, on 22 July said the first flight from Hong Kong to Singapore on 6 July used Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s vaccine code, while the second flight which departed from Singapore to Hong Kong on 15 July used Singapore’s HealthCerts PCR test result.

Cathay Pacific said the platform interpreted and validated the passengers’ records against travel rules for their itineraries and came up with a digital health pass to show their eligibility to travel.

General Manager Customer Experience and Design Vivian Lo said the use of digital health passes “can significantly alleviate travel uncertainties while providing greater reassurance and confidence to our customers.”

“These trials will pave the way for the reopening of our international flight routes, while the collaboration with our trial partners has enabled us to demonstrate to our industry peers and the border authorities the functionality of digital health passes using testing and vaccination records authorised by the authorities,” she added.

The long-term objective of the digital health passes is to replace the need to bring several paper-based records when travelling, the airline said.

The trials, which were also held in March and October last year, were in collaboration with The Commons Project and the Airport Authority Hong Kong.