Medical diagnostic services provider, SYNLAB, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have announced a partnership to facilitate safe and easy travel. The two partners signed an agreement to incorporate SYNLAB’s extensive lab network into IATA Travel Pass. This will enable airline passengers to access SYNLAB’s broad and secure COVID-19 testing services, benefiting from its international capabilities.
SYNLAB and IATA build upon valuable experience gained during a successful pilot project for passenger testing in Columbia over the course of the past months. Now, through SYNLAB’s international laboratory network travelers will have access to up to 450 testing labs and more than 1,600 sample collection points across 36 countries.
IATA Travel Pass allows passengers to locate authorized laboratories at departure locations to get tested for SARS-CoV-2 as required by border and health authorities. After testing, SYNLAB will provide passengers with their certified test results directly through the IATA Travel Pass. The app checks the result against the IATA Travel Pass registry of national entry requirements to produce an “OK to Travel” status. Through the app passengers can share their status and the digital test certificates with authorities and airlines to facilitate travel.
Authorized laboratories directly send COVID-19 test results to the passenger’s phone as a verifiable credential. This way, the IATA Travel Pass is a digital solution that also prevents potential forgery of test results.