A new health credential application has been developed and released by GE Aviation to address Covid-19 related safety concerns in the aviation industry. Named ‘Health Application ID’, the application focuses on three areas, namely employee control (screening workers to facilitate a safe return to the workplace); passenger control (screening passengers for responsible and safe aircraft occupancy); and object control (clearing objects on aircraft as disinfected to improve customer trust and confidence).
The system is based on the Microsoft Azure platform, and it is flexible and medical-test agnostic, which enables airlines to adapt it as regulations and science evolve. Demonstrations are underway with airlines, airports and industry groups.
“This application addresses an urgent need in our industry to help ensure airline and airport workers have been screened for Covid-19 and that their fellow passengers have been checked,” said Andrew Coleman, chief commercial officer of GE Aviation’s Digital Group. “We need to do everything we can to instil trust and confidence in the travelling public and get the world back to work and flying again”.
The solution enables airlines, airports and related transportation operation areas to set test result protocols and check the compliance with Covid-19 medical screening for employees and passengers. Personal information and test results are protected by encryption, and access is solely controlled by designated airline employees and passengers.
The application uses the Microsoft Azure Blockchain Service and related technologies that create a protocol to embed passenger identity information, ticket information, and medical screening results into the boarding process in a secure environment.
“We were able to quickly make this available with the help of great partners and our willingness to work across industries to apply best practices to this problem,” said David Havera, GM of GE Aviation’s blockchain solutions.
“We are combining GE Aviation’s data and analytics domain expertise with the scale and secure capabilities of Microsoft Azure along with TE-Food’s blockchain technology and best practices from the food industry to create a product that brings the best scalable solution to the aviation industry,” added Havera. “This offering gives control to the passengers by allowing them to view the cleaning history of the aircraft. Airlines gain more control by being able to record events as they occur, which enables pandemic containment and auditable records.”
Perhaps equally as innovative as the offering itself is how GE launched it. “Our digital group has used the concept of revenue share partners from our parent aviation company. This allows us to share the risk/reward with partners and take advantage of best practices across industries,” said Scott Ridge, GE Aviation’s global head of Partners and Alliances. “This is an outcome of a partner-enabled incubation model. Collaboration is the key to getting the world started up again. Over the coming months this model will continue to strengthen this offering by using the full power of GE and additional partners.”
