BA will trial the VeriFLY digital health app on all transatlantic routes between London and the US, starting from 4 February

British Airways will become the first airline in the UK to trial the VeriFLY digital health app, allowing customers to verify COVID-19 test certificates before they travel.

The trial will begin from 4 February on BA’s transatlantic routes between London and the US.

Passengers can download the app to their mobile device, and then check that they meet the entry requirements of their destination by providing digital health document verification and confirming eligibility. The software then confirms the test matches the country’s regulations with a ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’ message.

Sean Doyle, British Airways’ CEO said: “Although flying is currently restricted, it is essential we do as much as we can now to help those who are eligible to fly and prepare to help our customers navigate the complexities around changing global entry requirements when the world re-opens.

“We remain focused and committed to finding user-friendly, evidence-based solutions to make journeys as seamless they can be. Through these trials, we hope to provide travellers and governments on both sides of the Atlantic with the tools and the reassurance they need to make safe travel possible.”

The trial follows the recent announcement that American Airlines, British Airways’ joint business and oneworld partner, now allows all customers to use VeriFLY when they are travelling to the US from all international destinations.

British Airways is also simultaneously conducting a testing trial with American Airlines and oneworld on some routes from the US to the UK. The results of the trial will be shared with Oxford University, the academic partners and with governments on both sides of the Atlantic.

Robert Isom, American Airlines’ President said: “We are pleased to be working hand-in-hand again with our partner, British Airways, to make transatlantic travel as seamless as possible for those who are permitted to fly by utilising the latest in digital technology.”

VeriFLY’s software, which has been developed by private software company Daon, allows people to combine travel verification documents and COVID-19 test results in one place, ensuring travellers are fully compliant with the entry requirements for their destination before leaving home. Certified customers will be fast-tracked through the airport where specially designated desks will be available for check in.

Phase two, which will follow in the near future, will extend to cover customers travelling to the UK from the US across both carriers. This will make British Airways and American Airlines the first transatlantic partners to offer a digital solution for eligible customers flying to the UK.

source : https://www.futuretravelexperience.com/2021/02/british-airways-to-trial-verifly-digital-health-passport/?utm_source=fte-nl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-newsletter

The feature is accessible on both the United app and website via the “My Trips” section. BY CAILEY RIZZO JANUARY 25, 2021

https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/united-airlines/united-airlines-travel-ready-center-covid-travel-requirements

United Airlines has launched a new digital platform allowing passengers to review all the information they may need for upcoming travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Titled “Travel Ready Center,” — unveiled on Monday — travelers can upload any testing or vaccination records necessary for an upcoming trip and find local testing centers. The feature is accessible on both the United app and website via the “My Trips” section. 

“While pre-travel testing and documentation are key to safely reopening global travel, we know it can be confusing for customers when they’re preparing for a flight,” Linda Jojo, Executive Vice President for Technology and Chief Digital Officer, United said in a press release. “Starting today, our ‘Travel-Ready Center’ gives customers a personalized, step-by-step guide of what is needed for their trip, a simple way to upload required documents and quickly get their boarding pass, fully integrated within our app and website.”

Once travelers have a trip booked with United, they will be able to access the Travel-Ready Center and verify their travel requirements. Depending on their destination, the feature will display information about documentation or testing requirements necessary to board their flights.

Once travelers — 18 or older — upload their documents, they will be reviewed by a United employee. When the documents are verified, travelers will be cleared for check-in and can receive their boarding pass before heading to the airport. 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF UNITED AIRLINES

Over the coming weeks and months, the Travel-Ready Center will expand its offerings and introduce new features. Come February, passengers will be able to use the digital center to book a COVID-19 test and will also be able to video chat with a United agent to answer questions about travel restrictions via the airline’s virtual customer service platform. Visa requirements for traveling overseas will also be made available in the Travel-Ready Center over the coming months.

If vaccination records or “vaccine passports” become necessary for travel, that information will be made available in the digital center, as well. 

United has been developing several digital solutions to streamline travel during the pandemic. Last year, United introduced an interactive Destination Travel Guide, allowing passengers to search for and filter destinations around the globe by their COVID-19 restrictions. 

Other airlines are also working on new digital travel solutions. Last week, American Airlines debuted a health passport app. Etihad and Emirates also joined an international health passport app. 

More reading at : https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/united-airlines/united-airlines-travel-ready-center-covid-travel-requirements

A lidar-based real-time crowd analytics solution has recently helped Orlando International Airport create one of the world’s safest terminals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using lidar sensors, people moving around a building can be tracked thereby dramatically improving the usability, safety and cleanliness of large spaces. 

Seven Vista lidar sensors at Orlando International Airport are able to pass data between each other, allowing seamless tracking of the same person across large overlapping areas. This covers almost 100 per cent of the terminal area of roughly 50,000 square feet.

Unlike surveillance cameras, lidar sensors do not capture biometric data, making the data anonymised and compliant with privacy laws. They also perform accurately regardless of lighting conditions.

Picture: The Indoor Lab’s Safe Place™ solution uses the intelligent lidar data from Cepton’s Helius™ Smart Lidar System to deliver ground-breaking visual analytics of the foot traffic at Orlando International Airport. Image credit: The Indoor Lab.

Social Distancing and Floorplans 

Deployed by The Indoor Lab, the leading provider for monitoring real-time foot traffic using lidar sensors, the solution, called Safe Place™, uses Cepton’s award-winning Helius™ Smart Lidar System. 

According to The Indoor Lab, the full solution implemented in Orlando led to a drastic improvement in people’s adherence to social distancing through Thanksgiving and into the busy holiday travel season.

The software can also be used to help optimise layouts in aisles, walkways and retail spaces, as well as addressing safety risks. Data on crowd density, dwell times, motion tracking and speed of individuals can be used to manage queues and reduce crowding.

Crowd Tracking

The project at Orlando International Airport is one of several early projects initiated by The Indoor Lab and Cepton as part of a strategic partnership. The companies hope to collaborate to help enable a more efficient design of public and private commercial spaces, and improve public safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery.

Patrick Blattner, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of The Indoor Lab said: “We have a 15-year history of crowd tracking across retail, events, airports, and stadiums. So, when COVID-19 started spreading exponentially and negatively affected many public and private spaces, we consulted with leaders involved in drafting proposals for the International Franchise Association, including the use of lidar technology to help put the country back on a path towards normalcy. 

“With public concerns focused on cleanliness of public and commercial spaces, we extended our Safe Place^TM platform beyond occupancy and social distancing, creating the first proprietary real-time sanitization detection solution in the market. A Safe Place™ enabled environment ensures locations have been cleaned, distancing measures are followed, and safer occupancy levels are maintained. Our partnership with Cepton helped us deliver against this promise. Our patent-pending Safe Place^TM platform with real-time cleaning detection is the first of its kind in the world.” 

Picture: a photograph of an image showing people moving through an airport terminal. Aircraft can be seen from the windows

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 14 January 2021

source : https://www.twinfm.com/article/how-lidar-sensors-are-helping-airports-to-be-covid-safe

by Gustavo Pina Director, SITA Lab

The impact of COVID-19 has tipped the air transport industry into turmoil with planes grounded for much of 2020 and significant economic and operational challenges to solve.

The industry has moved quickly to find new solutions to meet the new health measures required by the pandemic. From head-mounted thermal scanners to social distancing technology, an accelerated rate of technology adoption reassures passengers that their flight will be safe. 

At the start of the pandemic, airline operations helped ensure the delivery of cargo planes containing critical supplies for countries most at risk and facilitated the repatriation of citizens. This work required airport and airline staff to work through the peaks of infection.

Now as many countries in Western Europe strap into their second lockdown, we are excited to be trialing a new solution that addresses some safety concerns of crew members. 

Working with a trusted partner like Etihad Airways at Abu Dhabi Airport we were able to apply our next-generation biometric technology to address key concerns for crew members and boost the airline’s efficiency. The objective was to create a better system for entry and exit to the restricted Crew Briefing Center (CBC). Our challenges were clear:

• Reduce lining up and speed up the crew check-in process at the CBC, reduce flight preparations stress and in turn improve crew morale and energy levels
• Enable a low touch process to mitigate COVID-19 risk by using facial recognition technology
• Integrate ‘biometrics on-the-go’ convenience for the crew to use their smartphones
• Enable an automated flight roster retrieval and roll call using facial recognition cameras

Having implemented SITA Smart Path, our low touch passenger solution at leading airports globally including Miami Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport  BCIA, and having a good understanding of how mobile-solutions can turn a passenger’s phone into their remote control for travel, we felt equipped to address these challenges.

Layers of complexity were added by the strict security regulations required. Making the technology accessible and intuitive for staff was also a high priority. Bring your own device (BYOD) was a key element of the project and why we developed a crew iPhone check-in app.

The face recognition uses Apple’s True Depth camera technology and there is also a shared iPad check-in app that allows the crew to answer regulatory compliance security and safety questions. Should there be any issue with a crew member’s mobile phone, several iPads have also been deployed at the CBC which the crew can use if they need to. A supervisor web portal enables monitoring of this activity and visibility on crew status.

We’re excited to partner with Etihad to trial the facial biometric services as part of the airline’s digitalization strategy.

Captain Sulaiman Yaqoobi, Vice President Flight Operations, Etihad Aviation Group said: “Etihad is constantly on the lookout for innovative solutions that will drive improvements in the airline’s operations and enhance the experience for guests and employees. We believe that facial recognition technology has the potential to enhance the efficiency and security of airline operations and are happy to be partners with SITA in this trial.”

Although this is a Proof of Concept running until late February 2021, we are hopeful the findings will lead to a broader solution for the industry at a time when crew and passenger safety is under the microscope.

Concepts from SITA’s innovation team have a successful track record of becoming commercial solutions. One example of a productized project is SITA’s CrewTab, a powerful yet easy-to-use tablet dashboard that digitizes cabin crew activities before, during and post-flight, to increase operational efficiency, empower crews and personalize service excellence.

SITA’s strategic technology research team stimulate technological innovation in the air transport industry and bring emerging technologies into SITA’s portfolio. The team innovates in collaboration with airlines, airports, and technology specialists globally.

source : https://www.sita.aero/pressroom/blog/sita-and-etihad-airways-reveal-a-smarter-path-to-crew-safety-and-efficient-operations/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1dGbU1EUTRNbVk1T0dFMCIsInQiOiJtdXVPRW1jSmh5QTB2b2ZrOTR3OE0ydndCS3czWmsrZlo4YnpZXC9mM1pjVjZVS0FrQ1ZtMHZJSFhUTzNGTEZxMXNaWFJMZytFZFN6aVVsb3hmOXltMXhwNytEa0o2QlVKUEVIWkdqWjdYeTk3NDFcL1dWWHBoQUNcL25GMGZrajVhUCJ9