As vaccinations are rolled out globally and more countries require a negative COVID-19 test for passengers prior to travel, confusion around mandated requirements remains a concern for flyers. To address this issue and ensure airlines can effectively share the most up-to-date information, ATPCO today unveiled new Routehappy Content: COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Requirements.
The new dataset provides clear details about which countries and airlines require proof of a negative COVID-19 test before departure and if vaccination is required to enter a country.
While no government explicitly requires a vaccination to enter its borders as yet, ATPCO has proactively extended this dataset to ensure it can instantly serve the industry as flight shopping requirements evolve. Systems and channels will be able to use their existing connections and integrations of Routehappy Content without the need to undergo new or lengthy development processes.
With travel requirements changing frequently, consumers must deal with conflicting and sometimes confusing information when purchasing airline tickets. With the new reassurance information for testing and vaccination requirements delivered in a structured format, ATPCO has centralized and standardized the content for 102 airlines, covering more than 75% of global available seat kilometers, using simple to understand, uniform text and visuals.
ATPCO created this new content to quickly solve a problem for both airline and channel partners as well as for consumers and the flight shopping content is already live on multiple channels, including Sabre and Serko.
“The science is evolving quickly, so countries, airlines, and channels are having to adjust travel requirements at a pace not previously seen. It’s almost impossible for even the savviest travelers to keep up with these changes on their own,” said Jonathan Savitch, Chief Commercial Officer at ATPCO. “As an industry-owned company that exists to make flight shopping easier, these are the challenges we need to tackle by enabling a simple and standard format that can be leveraged from existing connections that channels, systems, and airlines already have with ATPCO. One-off developments won’t work.”
Darrin Grafton, co-founder and CEO at Serko added, “We are living in an incredibly dynamic environment, and ATPCO’s Routehappy Content is key to Serko’s ability to help customers travel safer and smarter. With a single integration into Zeno we’re able to integrate the most up to date information to stay ahead of the evolving needs of the market. The efficiencies this brings our product development teams’ is a game-changer.”
ATPCO’s Routehappy Content also covers cleaning, masks, temperature checks, blocked seats, and passenger capacity in the same Structured UPA format. ATPCO is also developing options to expand this offering further as consumer and industry needs evolve, such as for digital health passports.
ABOUT ATPCO
ATPCO is the foundation of flight shopping, providing pricing and retailing content, tools, and services to 500+ airlines, global distribution systems, sales channels, and technology companies. ATPCO links the entire airline community together, collaborating to develop industry standards for airline distribution and end-to-end technology solutions. From shopping to settlement, ATPCO solutions work seamlessly across existing, new, and evolving technologies and methods. Airline-owned and reliably supporting air travel for more than 55 years, ATPCO is everywhere people buy flights.
Featured image credited to istock.com/JakeOlimb
