Topic: Iata

Airlines are developing apps like "VeriFLY" and the IATA Travel Pass to verify passenger health status. Former FDA Director and current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb notes that the primary impediment to these systems in the US is that vaccine data is owned by individual state jurisdictions. He predicts digital verification will be necessary for nursing homes and hospitals.

The airline industry is facing its worst crisis in history, with travel doubling every 15 years prior to the pandemic. Analysts on Al Jazeera compare the current situation to the five-year recovery period following 9/11 and the two-year recovery after the 2008 financial crisis. The hosts discuss the tiny profit margins of economy travel and the potential for airlines to go out of business without government intervention.

The FBI's new biometric system includes the ability to search for scars, marks, and tattoos. The hosts suggest that the "tattoo culture" has inadvertently provided the government with permanent identification marks. They also discuss the IATA "checkpoint of the future," which uses biometric passports to sort travelers into different security tunnels.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is promoting a new "known traveler" screening system that uses pre-screening and enhanced security lanes. Meanwhile, heavy bombing continues in Tripoli, Libya, despite President Obama's earlier claims that the transition would take days rather than weeks.