Demand grows for digital vaccine passports; but choose app wisely

In the week since international travelers were welcomed back to the United States, airlines, nonprofit organizations and travel groups have finally seen an uptick in the digital health passes they had hoped travelers would use since their launch.

American Airlines has been seeing a nearly 10 percent increase in its VeriFLY app usage for travel since the Nov. 8 lifting of U.S. entry restrictions, said spokeswoman Rachel Warner. Tech research firm Apptopia noticed a 5 percent increase in downloads of these kinds of apps from the week before the travel ban was lifted, according to Thomas Grant, the company’s director of equity research.

Travel industry experts credited this rise to the new flood of international travelers.

“With the reopening of international borders, it puts the onus on individuals to be able to prove [their vaccination status],” said Dakota Gruener, executive director at ID2020, a nonprofit group supporting digital identification. “Airports are having to staff as many people to handle much lower travel volumes than they did pre-pandemic because there’s so much paperwork.”  ..

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