Why Did the Touchdown of This United Flight Deserve a Zoom Press Conference?


Skift Take

Covid screening is all the rage. But the point where all these trials and pilots materialize into something coherent, with the backing of governments, needs to arrive soon.
It’s unusual for a group of seasoned business travelers to declare their arrival at an airport by livestreaming a press conference, even more so when they happen to be travel agency execs. But this wasn’t an ordinary flight. United Flight 15, which touched down at Newark Liberty International Airport in the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon, marked the first transatlantic pilot of a digital health pass called CommonPass.

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 In essence, CommonPass is a QR code that shows you don’t have coronavirus, and part of a framework that sets standards for lab results and vaccination records, allowing different countries to set their own health criteria for entry. This was the second test flight, following Cathay Pacific’s debut from Hong Kong to Singapore on October 6. What’s the Verdict? After landing, senior execs