Paris (AFP)
The Minister for Transport said he was in favor on Friday of solutions for digitizing documents related to the Covid-19 crisis to facilitate air travel, but stressed that the debate on a "vaccine passport" was not yet settled.
"There is a subject of knowing how today we + digitize + all the documents", such as the test certificate, that of compelling reason for travel or the certificate of non-symptoms, listed Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on the RMC radio antenna.
So many "paper" documents that must be presented on boarding and which slow down the flow of travelers in airports, even with the current reduced traffic, the minister noted.
He said he supported the initiative of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) which is currently testing in the United Kingdom and Singapore a secure application for a digital health passport, "Iata Travel Tass" which would notably guarantee the authenticity of the test. screening or vaccination certificate, and who wants to start rolling it out next month in other countries.
For its part, the company Air France announced this week that it would test from March 11 a "digital health pass" on its routes from Paris to Guadeloupe and Martinique, again to "improve the experience of its customers and streamline their airport journeys ".
The results of the negative Covid test, necessary for travel, will be authenticated through a partnership with a laboratory and saved securely on this application.
This digitization, "we must go now, it is all the same the meaning of history", affirmed Mr. Djebbari.
However, he distinguished between these measures and the "vaccine passport", a certificate of vaccination against Covid-19 which would allow travel more freely, and which is controversial.
"This is a political discussion that has not yet taken place, it will take place in France and at European level when we have made sufficient progress on vaccine policy," he added, recalling that only "a few percent "of the European population were so far vaccinated.
Tuesday, Secretary of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said that this debate, which divides in Europe, remained "premature" for France.
© 2021 AFP