New fast Covid test centre to open at Gatwick Airport
A new Covid-19 screening centre is to be opened at Gatwick Airport.
And it will offer fast tests for the general public and local residents as well as air travellers and airport staff.
It will open on Monday (November 30) within the airport’s long stay car park at the south terminal.
The airport has teamed up with ExpressTest, a division of Cignpost Diagnostics, to launch the new screening service which promises results the following day.
Tests for the general public will cost £99 while air passengers and airport staff will pay a subsidised rate of £60.
Gatwick chief executive officer Stewart Wingate said: “Reducing the spread of Covid-19 is a priority for us alongside giving confidence to so many people who have missed travelling during this difficult year. Our new screening facility is also a convenient service to offer people in the region looking for extra reassurance.
“We are pleased to be subsidising the price for our passengers and any staff based at Gatwick so they are compliant with current destination requirements that many airlines including easyJet, British Airways and TUI fly to. Our industry has been decimated by the pandemic and, while we welcome the anticipated ‘test and release’ scheme from the Government, we want to see an internationally agreed pre-departure testing regime, based onexisting risk criteria, to replace the current uncertainty of quarantine and patchwork of testing approaches which currently exists across Europe.
“A truly international approach would safely open up most of the UK’s travel routes abroad, while also helping to reduce transmission of the virus.”
ExpressTest founder Nick Markham added: “We launched ExpressTest to give people peace of mind, whether that’s enabling travel through our Fit to Fly certificates, or providing the reassurance needed to safely visit friends and family abroad or within the UK.
“In the next couple of months we aim to have more than 30 locations operating across the UK, with the ambition of giving the British public the confidence to go about their daily lives in these uncertain times.”