UK travellers have been in need of some good news for a while, and now there is some!
Note: All information is accurate at time of publishing.
From Tuesday 20th October, Heathrow Airport has begun testing for coronavirus in order to help passengers who are travelling to countries which require a negative test result before flying.
British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Virgin Atlantic are three airlines which will offer this test to their passengers, and the tests will start with those travelling to Italy and Hong Kong - two countries where a negative test result is required within 72-hours of a flight from London.
The Coronavirus Test Costs and Details
The Heathrow coronavirus test being carried out at airports is a rapid saliva swab, known as a Lamp (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test, and will cost £80 with the hope that this might be dropped in future to align with the costs of this test in the rest of Europe (usually closer to £50).
This test is quicker than the widely-used PCR test because the sample doesn’t need to be sent to a lab in order to get the results, so results are available within 1-hour!
This means travellers will only need to turn up to the airport an hour earlier than usual, and combined with the additional health screening measures currently in place at UK airports, the hope is that it will lead to increased confidence to travel.
Opening Travel Routes
People arriving in Italy from the UK must now either prove they had a negative coronavirus test before departure, or take a test on arrival at the Italian airport, while the authorities in Hong Kong now require people to show they have a negative test result taken within 72-hours of a flight from London, so for both these locations the test will be a welcome addition to the process.
Unfortunately the Lamp test being provided isn’t sensitive enough for travel to some destinations, with places such as Greece, Cyprus, The Bahamas, and Bermuda requiring proof of a lab-analysed PCR test. The aviation officials are, however, hoping that these countries will eventually adjust their rules to allow for other types of test, so the Lamp test will be more widely useful for travel.
Flying Into the UK
These tests are not currently being offered for people travelling into the UK, and therefore won’t have an immediate impact on the 2-week quarantine for people arriving to the UK from ‘at risk’ countries.
Ministers have promised that next month there will be some formal approval for people being able to quarantine for just 1-week as long as they get a negative test result, and the government have confirmed they’re in talks with US Homeland Security to see about opening testing options and reduced quarantine between our countries, but these conversations are still ongoing and nothing has been confirmed as yet.
Overall we’re just hopeful that the Heathrow Coronavirus test programme will help travellers to feel as safe as they can when flying internationally.
As usual, make sure you #TravelSafely, and follow all government guidelines for the countries you’re entering and leaving.
