Daily US Times: The boss of the world’s busiest airport for international passengers has said coronavirus vaccine passports are the only way to restart mass foreign travel.
Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports chief executive, said: “I don’t think there is an alternative.”
Critics of the digital systems argue they discriminate against the people who cannot get Covid vaccine.
But the Dubai airport boss says in an interview with BBC that he is a complete supporter of the documents, which he says are “inevitable”.
He said; “I think the problem is not the vaccine passport and its discrimination. It’s the need to roll things out and have a proper globally equitable vaccine programme.”
The World Travel & Tourism Council and World Health Organisation (WHO) are among those opposed to vaccine passports amid fears they will create a “two-tier society”.
Last month, Dr Mike Ryan from the WHO repeated concerns about the fairness and ethical issues surrounding vaccine passports.
He said that the vaccine passports do need to be considered, especially in a world where coronavirus vaccine is distributed in such a grossly inequitable way.
The aviation industry across the world is desperately looking for ways to pick up speed after the damage wrought by government restrictions and a collapse in passenger confidence.
According to the Air Transport Action Group, the industry was making a 3.5 trillion US dollars annual contribution to the global economy before the pandemic.
However, with flights grounded due to the pandemic, the numbers going through Dubai International Airport have collapsed in a similar way to the rest of the industry.
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