United free Covid pre-departure testing on NY-Lon route
Following on from last weeks successful flight, United Airlines is to run a four-week-long pilot programme offering passengers on its New York Newark-London Heathrow route rapid pre-departure tests for Covid.
The airline said that from 16 November to 11 December, all passengers and crew members on United flight 14, which departs Newark for London Heathrow at 8.15pm on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, would be offered a free test as part of a project to help convince officials that international travel is safe.
United will be using a molecular Abbott ID Now test which can yield a result in 13 minutes. In a study of 955 individuals in which 23 people tested positive for Covid using lab-based PCR tests, the Abbott test picked up 21 of the positive patients. This means the test has 91.3 per cent sensitivity (correctly identifying those with the virus) and 100 per cent specificity (correctly identifying those that are healthy).
The test will be administered by Premise Health at a facility in the Newark United Club near gate C93 at Liberty International. Passengers will need to book the test in advance and are advised to do this at least three hours before the flight. Those testing positive at the airport will not be permitted to board but will be offered a refund or the opportunity to travel at a later date.
“Through the pilot programme, we will ensure that everyone on board has tested negative for Covid-19 on the day of travel,” said Aaron McMillan, United’s managing director of operations policy and support.
The test will not allow passengers to bypass quarantine on arrival unlike the airline’s recent pre-departure testing programme on its San Francisco to Hawaii route.
“Customers who participate will still have to comply with quarantine regulations in the UK,” said McMillan.
Josh Earnest, chief communications officer at United Airlines, said that in the two weeks since the Hawaii trial had started, the number of people travelling on the route had nearly doubled as a result.
On the Hawaii route, United passes on the cost of the test to passengers.
“We certainly feel comfortable that for the four weeks of the trial we will offer the test for free. We will evaluate whether this a cost we can absorb. We are optimistic that as we build more of a track record with partners, as we get into an operational routing and testing capacity begins to expand, all three of those will put downward pressure on the cost.”
The airline said it had been an “active participant” in discussions to open up flights between the US and the UK. “We have been in touch with officials here in the United States and officials overseas to talk about the potential to open up those corridors,” said Earnest.
Recently, the airline took part in a limited test on the transatlantic route of a digital health passport called CommonPass that could standardise the way test results are handled internationally.
Earnest said, “We ran a pilot last week that was small in scale but wildly successful. We continue discussions with CommonPass to look at ways to further streamline this process. At present, we have people showing up with paper documentation for various travel destinations and it can be confusing for customers and employees. Using CommonPass could be of great benefit but we don’t have any definitive plans to plug them into this pilot and we are evaluating opportunities.”
The airline is bullish that customer testing will reopen long-haul travel.
Earnest said, “We are not second-guessing the decisions that government officials are making. They have a responsibility to look after the health and wellbeing of their population. We are trying to demonstrate that this kind of international travel is safe.”
He added: “We are hopeful that this programme will prompt governments to look at the data and the science to see that this is a safe way to reopen the economy.”
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