Bradley to offer virus testing

Details to be announced at 2 p.m. news conference

Bradley International Airport is expected to announce Wednesday that it will begin offering COVID-19 tests as an option for travelers who want to avoid a 14-day quarantine if they are flying from a state listed on the Connecticut’s travel advisory.

Details about how the tests will be administered at the state’s largest airport are expected to be announced at a 2 p.m. news conference at the airport.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Ned Lamont altered the state’s COVID-19 testing requirements that are part of the travel advisory for passengers arriving at Bradley. Travelers can now avoid a mandatory 14-day self quarantine by providing a negative test result obtained within 72 hours of arrival or after arriving at Bradley. The advisory

requires travelers to stay in quarantine until test results are obtained.

The Connecticut Airport Authority has said it was in discussions with two laboratories about the potential for testing in both the terminal and at a mobile site on airport grounds. If passengers choose the testing option, they wouldn’t necessarily have to seek the test at the airport. They could seek tests at other locations in the state, CAA officials have said.

The CAA, which oversees operations at Bradley, had pressed the Lamont administration for more than a month for alternatives to the self-quarantine. The CAAsaid business and leisure travel was already down at Bradley, but the travel advisory’s quarantine was pushing it down even more.

Last week, low-cost carrier JetBlue announced that it would add non-stop flights from Bradley to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Cancún, Mexico later this year, even as many airlines are contracting in the pandemic. Part of the reason for adding the flights from Bradley, JetBlue said, was because of the decision to ease the travel advisory.

Connecticut’s travel advisory’s self-quarantine restrictions has now come to more closely resemble those in Massachusetts, which were rolled out Aug. 1.

JetBlue said it had already seen a “meaningful” increase bookings in and out of Hartford in the week since Lamont offered the testing options as alternatives to the 14-day self-quarantine.

Earlier this month, JetBlue told The Courant that the mandatory 14-day quarantine had it reconsidering on-going talks with Bradley about adding new West Coast destinations.