NOW AT THE BOARDING GATE: CORONAVIRUS TESTS
American Airlines said Tuesday that it will offer coronavirus tests to passengers, joining United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue Airways in rolling out pref light testing. Tampa International Airport also said it will offer tests. The tests, which range from rapid tests at the airport that return results in minutes to tests that take a few days, allow travelers whose results are negative to skip or minimize quarantine restrictions in various destinations.
The new tests come as the number of people f lying both domestically and internationally continues to be at record lows (the Transportation Security Administration screened 568,688 people Tuesday compared to 1,998,980 on the same date a year ago). Testing at airports, it is hoped, will assuage people who are worried about the safety of f lying amid the ongoing pandemic.
“Our plan for this initial phase of pref light testing ref lects the ingenuity and care our team is putting into rebuilding confidence in air travel and we view this as an important step in our work to accelerate an eventual recovery of demand,” Robert Isom, American’s president, said in a statement Tuesday.
American initially will test people traveling to international destinations, starting with people traveling from Miami International Airport to Jamaica. Testing for travel to Jamaica will be for residents f lying to their home country; if a passenger tests negative for the virus, the 14-day quarantine currently in place for returning residents would be waived. The airline is also working to start testing for visitors and residents going to the Bahamas and other countries in the Caribbean. Beginning in mid-October, the airline will offer at-home testing that can be done via video call with a medical professional; in-person testing at
a CareNow urgent care location; and rapid on-site testing, administered by CareNow at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for f lights to Hawaii.
The tests are not mandatory, and range in price from about $50 to $250.
Tampa International Airport is the first airport in the United States to offer the tests and they will be available to passengers f lying on any airline. Tests will be administered by BayCare nurses and medical professionals, and travelers have the option of taking a PCR test that returns results in 48 hours or a rapid antigen test that returns results in 15 minutes. Before the pandemic,
Tampa’s airport was one of the busiest in the country, with more than 22 million travelers in 2019. Ticketed passengers who are f lying or have f lown within three days and can show proof of travel can take a nasal swab test for $125 or an antigen test for $57.
Announced last week, United’s pilot program for testing passengers and people traveling from San Francisco International Airport to Hawaii on the airline will begin mid-October, when Hawaii allows out-of-state visitors to skip quarantine if they have a negative test result within 72 hours of traveling.
JetBlue is offering an at-home saliva test that is administered through an online video chat with a Vault Health test supervisor who ensures customers are providing their samples correctly. The airline’s test is for people traveling to countries that allow people to enter if they have a negative test result. Travelers receive results within 72 hours.
Hawaiian Airlines will have drive-thru testing sites for its passengers in San Francisco and Los Angeles in partnership with Worksite Labs; the tests will cost $90 for results within 36 hours, or $150 for day-of-travel express service beginning in mid-October.