If you are in the Air Travel business, then you need to bookmark the IATA Travel Centre website.
What do you mean you’ve never heard of the IATA Travel Centre? Or Timatic? What are you people doing? Watching millennials on TikTok showing you how to tuck your shirt in?
Travel Centre
Do you fly on Airplanes, sometimes internationally? Or decide what legitimate traffic options are available? You do! Great. When planning your trip do you worry about things like Covid restrictions? Or Visa requirements? Or what banana skins might be waiting at some immigration authorities?
Flights
Maybe Canada wants you to be wearing a Leaf’s jersey when you land, or Ireland is demanding you visit the pub ten times before you leave. It might happen! Or you’re worried that your pomma-schnaus-a-doodle might not have the right paperwork for Mexico City.
And you’ve already spent a fortune on a new travelling jacket with a matching water bowl. You need accurate info!
Travel Agents
Fear not, wise traveler. You have found us and that’s all that matters. Well, you’ve found the IATA Travel Centre. Provided by ur good friends at the International Airline Transport Association.
For flights to and from each country in the world, they have the correct, and up to date, rules, and regulations that you must abide by. Whether you work alone or with travel agencies.
If you are a customer in a rush, just head over there right now. The IATA Travel Centre and just input your destination country to get the travel documentation information you need.
But if you decide to stick around, we want to reward you with a few key industry takeaways. First, we just want to confirm what data the Travel Centre will do for you.
IATA Travel Centre
- Passport, Travel Visa, and Health Regulation requirements.
- Customs, Currency, and Airport Information.
- Covid Information
- Latest Travel Restrictions
- Import Regulations
Travel Questions
The IATA Travel Centre is the official source especially If you have questions such as…
Q. What items you can take in (or out) of places like Iran, North Korea, or New Zealand?
Q. What Taxes you will be expected to pay to enter or exit a country?
Q. What wild Flora or Fauna you can or cannot bring into the Country?
Q. What are the Pet entry requirements, or entry regulations for any foreign country?
Q. The IATA site FAQs are where you can find a whole lot more information on your trip.
IATA Travel Centre Tools
So how is this all done? By the TIM, of course
The Timatic database is what IATA uses to make sure travel restrictions and updates are supplied to airlines and airports daily. This includes all normal travel restrictions but has since been updated to include Covid information and Covid passenger documentation.
If you want, you can read all about the TIMATIC. Processing times are instantaneous, and it covers all health requirements regardless of what international flight you might be planning.
Airlines and Time
But the real reason we bring up the Timatic API is the IATA Travel Pass. As this explains how the pass works. When Covid first arrived, aviation was blamed for the speed it spread. This is untrue as we now know.
From our perspective, a key event was a group of Chinese tourists in Northern Italy that spread like wildfire and overwhelmed local hospitals. We remember these poor people in Italy as being the first signs in Europe that we were in big trouble.
Now that we are re-opening borders and restarting aviation, governments want to show the world that airlines are mitigating Covid risks as fast as possible. Informing passengers on tests, vaccine status and country requirements via an online check, prior to travel, has been a huge challenge in doing this.
The IATA Travel Pass has arrived to fix that problem.
Travel Documents
So, you can go to the Apple store right now and get the IATA Travel Pass App. But before you do, this app application process alone does not solve your problem. The first invitation to use the App must come from your Airline and they must be part of the current IATA trial.
Yes, some airlines are collecting this data via their own booking systems or other apps, but we want something that’s personal to you and that works across all airlines and all platforms.
Once you have your own app and your own information you only must manage that one piece of software and everyone else will speak to it. And who doesn’t want that?
So how does the IATA Travel Pass work? Here are the data sources.
IATA Travel Centre Timatic
This previously mentioned database will link via API directly to the Travel Pass. It keeps it updated and links to your travel plans, travel period and valid passport data. It is widely used by travel agencies.
Registry of Testing Centers
The Travel Pass will have details on testing centers worldwide, so you don’t need to go looking for them in travel agents in every city. The App will tell you.
Lab App
Each country’s vaccination labs and authorities will be able to securely send test results and your vaccination certificate directly to the travel pass. No more QR codes or ever-changing travel regulations.
Travel Pass App
All your Air Travel requirements in one app for each airline. In the future, all airline apps will link directly to the IATA Travel pass app and save you the hassle. So, all you must do is get tested, and be vaccinated and the IATA travel pass will take care of everything else.
