Emirates Air begins rapid Coronavirus testing for boarding passengers

[Edwin Santos]

Caught this article the other day about Emirates Air being the first airline to roll out Covid-19 testing for passengers. Could this be the future of air travel?

Not advocating or criticizing the move, but I will say for anyone who would otherwise be nervous about possible exposure during flight, the testing of all passengers as a condition of boarding would certainly bring peace of mind. Maybe given the choice of airlines, a passenger might choose to go with the one doing testing so maybe this becomes a competitive advantage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emirates-airline-begins-testing-passengers-for-coronavirus/

I really wonder how long it will take for the travel industry to recover, and what shape the new normal will take.
Edwin

[Bruce Wrenn]

Read my post about using dogs to sniff out CV 19. This would be a great application.

[Lee Schierer]

Caught this article the other day about Emirates Air being the first airline to roll out Covid-19 testing for passengers. Could this be the future of air travel?

Not advocating or criticizing the move, but I will say for anyone who would otherwise be nervous about possible exposure during flight, the testing of all passengers as a condition of boarding would certainly bring peace of mind. Maybe given the choice of airlines, a passenger might choose to go with the one doing testing so maybe this becomes a competitive advantage.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emirates-airline-begins-testing-passengers-for-coronavirus/

I really wonder how long it will take for the travel industry to recover, and what shape the new normal will take.
Edwin

Not having an elevated temperature is no guarantee that a person is not a carrier. According to the CDC you can be shedding the virus to others with no sign of symptoms.

[Edwin Santos]

Not having an elevated temperature is no guarantee that a person is not a carrier. According to the CDC you can be shedding the virus to others with no sign of symptoms.

You're right, but the article talks about Emirates Air using a rapid blood based coronavirus test.

[Stan Calow]

So, what rapid test method are they using? How reliable is it? And if it is reliable, why aren't we using it here for testing everyone? A matter of wealth? I imagine this kind of practice in the US would get bogged down in legal issues.

[Adam Herman]

We are doing this testing now, in the USA. Its a matter of production of tests at scale that takes a bit of time to ramp up. several companies are doing this and I am sure others overseas.

[Edwin Santos]

So, what rapid test method are they using? How reliable is it? And if it is reliable, why aren't we using it here for testing everyone? A matter of wealth? I imagine this kind of practice in the US would get bogged down in legal issues.
Testing doesn't seem to be as much of an issue for certain countries as it's been in the US. I don't know if it has to do with wealth per se.
In the US, any test has to be FDA approved, and it seemed to me from the news reporting that early on there was only one test platform and only the CDC or certain state health departments could run it. Now it looks like there are multiple platforms including some rapid types.
In other countries, FDA approval is irrelevant, but whether that makes their testing better or worse is not something I would know.

BTW, Emirates Air is only doing the testing on certain routes as a trial, with the expectation of rolling it out perhaps system wide. I only raised this as an interesting potential new trend in airline travel. Maybe cruise ships will see fit to do the same if it eases passenger reluctance. I wonder if there will be new career opportunities for nurses and medical professionals in markets that never existed before.

On the other hand, after a vaccine is developed and Covid-19 is (hopefully) a memory, maybe we'll all forget about pandemics and things will go back to the way they were. From what I can tell, the 1918 flu pandemic didn't seem to permanently change the way society functioned.

[Brian Elfert]

BTW, Emirates Air is only doing the testing on certain routes as a trial, with the expectation of rolling it out perhaps system wide. I only raised this as an interesting potential new trend in airline travel. Maybe cruise ships will see fit to do the same if it eases passenger reluctance. I wonder if there will be new career opportunities for nurses and medical professionals in markets that never existed before.


I don't see cruise lines doing this as the virus has a 14 day incubation period. A cruise usually lasts a minimum of five days so you could get sick a day or two after taking the test. An airplane flight is over within a day so it is unlikely you will become symptomatic before the flight is over.