RwandAir will become the first African airline to trial the Iata Travel Pass, which aims to enable “safe and seamless international travel”.
The airline will begin a three-week trial in April for customers travelling between Kigali and Nairobi in Kenya.
It follows news about other airlines trialling the pass, including Etihad, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Copa Airlines and Air New Zealand.
Iata Travel Pass is a digital platform to help passengers verify that they comply with Covid-19 test or vaccine travel requirements.
The Telegraph and BBC reported that the app is due to be ready “within weeks”.
Alexandre de Juniac, Iata director general and chief executive, said: “This trial…takes us a step further in the context of Covid-19. Iata Travel Pass will give governments the confidence to re-open their borders knowing that arriving passengers are in full compliance with any testing or vaccination requirements.”
Yvonne Manzi Makolo, chief executive of RwandAir, said: “RwandAir is proud to be the first African airline to trial Iata Travel Pass, which could reinforce all the health and safety measures and protocols which we have put in place to restore customer confidence to fly once more.
“Iata’s innovative solution simplifies and digitally transmits the information required by countries and governments around the world into our airline systems, in a secure and efficient manner.”
Iata has welcomed the UK prime minister’s roadmap for resuming international travel and said it is “ready to work with the government” to meet the April 12 deadline for a plan to safely restart air travel.
The UK government will consider vaccine certificates for international travel as part of this review.
PM Boris Johnson has also announced a review into vaccine certificates for domestic use, which will be led by Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.