Air New Zealand reveals vaccine pass numbers, will adopt IATA app mid-January

The scene at Auckland Airport on Wednesday morning as the border restrictions on the city were finally lifted. Photo / RNZ

The pandemic appears to have a rare good news story about software that worked seamlessly from the get-go.

Some 166,000 people have taken advantage of a new feature to upload their My Vaccine Pass to Air New Zealand's app, the airline's chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar says.

That means there's still some distance to go. There are around 2.6 million people within NZ who use Air NZs app to track their airpoints or hold digital copies of their tickets. And between now and January, it has taken some 720,000 bookings from those keen to take advantage of freer travel (passengers out of Auckland spiked from 1000 on Tuesday to 12,000 on Wednesday. On its busiest day, December 23, Air NZ has 34,000 booked to fly.

But so far, so good. On social media - not a forum that has been shy of pointing out the shortcomings of Covid-related tech - response to a Herald shout-out was overwhelmingly positive.

"Easy as," said between-jobs frequent traveller John Edwards.

"Perfectly easy for this 70+-year-old," replied Linlye Court.

Users of Air NZ's app should see a pop-up next time they open the app, with a link to upload their My Vaccine Pass. If they don't see the pop-up, they should be able to upload their pass via settings.

Ravishankar explains that, for privacy reasons, Air NZ's app is just recording your vaccination status, not all your other Vaccine Pass details. Once its app has recorded your QR code once, you automatically pre-qualify for all future flights (or at least, until your pass expires).

He says Air NZ staff around the country were issued with 600 iPhones to help ease any issues involving printed-out passes, but in the event, there have been no problems.

NZ travel twitter - have you uploaded your Vaccine Pass to Air NZ's app? How did it go? Thanks

— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) December 16, 2021

A couple of readers just couldn't see an option to upload their My Vaccine Pass. Ravishankar said they needed to their copy of Air NZ's app to its most recent version (see an explainer here). Security software that blocked pop-ups could also affect the app.

The email you get from the Ministry of Health with your My Vaccine Pass includes a PDF copy of the pass. That can be saved to your iPhone or Android's files folder then uploaded to Air NZ's app. But many readers told the Herald they simply took a screen grab of their My Vaccine Pass then uploaded that.

A new way of working

Ravishankar says a cross-functional team upgraded Air NZ's app to accommodate the My Vaccine Pass in just four weeks.

"We took all the bureaucracy out of the system," the CDO says. "It was a real cultural boost. We want to bottle that and use it as a way of working in the future;"

IATA app for international flights

The My Vaccine Pass is for domestic flights only - for which Air NZ requires either a pass, or a negative Covid test.

For international flights, proof of full vaccination will be required from February 1.

Chief corporate officer Mat Bolland says that move is in part due to customer demand, and in part simply a reflection of the fact that most offshore destinations now require proof of full vaccination.

The Ministry of Health (through the My Covid Record site) can provide you with a letter confirming your vaccination status.

Air New Zealand is also working on an all-compassing virtual wallet for international travellers.

Bolland says that will take some months to put together.

As an interim step, Air NZ will adopt an app developed by IATA (International Air Transport Association), which its international passengers will be able to use to hold a digital record of their vaccination status.

IATA has long been the body that keeps records of different country's travel policies, so using its app for Covid-related information is a natural step, Bolland says.