Airline test can cancel quarantine

United Airlines will become the first U.S. carrier to offer rapid coronavirus testing to some of its passengers — if they’re willing to pay a little extra, the company announced Thursday.

The tests will be available to customers traveling from San Francisco Airport to Hawaii starting Oct. 15. Passengers would either take a quick test at the airport that delivers results in 15 minutes or request a mail-in, self-collected test ahead of their trip, according to United.

The pilot testing program will help travelers avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine in Hawaii and will later be expanded to other parts of the country.

“We’ll look to quickly expand customer testing to other destinations and U.S. airports later this year to complement our state-of-theart cleaning and safety measures,” said Toby Enqvist, United’s chief customer officer.

The tests will be available to United customers flying from San Francisco to Honolulu, Maui, Kona and Lihue.

The $250 rapid testing option was created by health technology company Abbott and is administered by GoHealth Urgent Care and Dignity Health.

The $80 mail-in test, administered by Color, will have to be done no later than 10 days before a scheduled trip and the sample must be returned within 72 hours of the flight.

“Convenient, widespread COVID-19 testing with fast and reliable results is critical to a return to normalcy and to accelerate the economic recovery,” Color’s chief commercial officer, Caroline Savello, said in a statement.

Also Thursday, German airline Lufthansa said it wants to offer on-the-spot coronavirus tests before boarding intercontinental flights in an attempt to find a way to get long-haul passengers flying again.

The airline said it was working with partners in the pharmaceutical industry to obtain an accurate test that could provide results within 15 minutes for $12.