SITA Health Protect Screening Portfolio to Support COVID-19 Compliance

SITA is introducing a new health screening system to facilitate safe travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Health Protect suite will give passengers a discreet way to share the results of a COVID-19 test, and ensure that they have all of the documents needed to enter the country when they arrive at their destination.

In that regard, Health Protect is comparable to similar solutions like Airside’s Health Passport and Daon’s VeriFLY. The platform will let passengers know what documents they need to travel, and give people an easy way to share those documents and prove their status at airport security checkpoints. Those without the necessary credentials can be turned away at check-in, long before they board the plane and expose other travelers to a potential infection. Doing so reduces the need for return flights for people who are denied entry on arrival.

The Health Protect portfolio includes SITA Health ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) and SITA Advance Passenger Processing (APP), both of which are compatible with the contactless SITA Flex platform in addition to other passenger processing systems. As a result, Health Protect will expedite the passenger journey and allow people to move through the airport more quickly.

SITA has already trialed the new system on select flights from Germany and Estonia to the United Arab Emirates. Those pilots were carried out in collaboration with SimplyGo, an app that allows travelers to store the negative COVID test result needed to travel. Airport and border officials were then able to view those results thanks to SimplyGo’s integration with SITA APP.

“We’re excited for the potential of SITA Health Protect to bridge the gap between airlines resuming normal operations and governments’ strong focus on keeping control of COVID-19,” said SITA Airports and Borders CEO David Lavorel. “Recovery from COVID-19 will take time, but we believe that SITA can play a key role in enabling a safer, simpler travel experience.”

The Health Protect trial will soon expand to Milan Malpensa Airport. SITA has argued that mobile screening and the digitization of travel documents will be key to reviving the air travel industry in the wake of the pandemic.

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February 8, 2021 – by Eric Weiss