Lufthansa wants to offer coronavirus rapid tests for passengers from October. The new antigen tests will initially be available for first and business class passengers.
As the demand for international flights has increasingly declined with the spread of the virus, several airports have introduced rapid tests before flights to create more confidence and offer an alternative to the prospect of a 14-day quarantine.
Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Alexandre de Juniac, explains:
Quarantine measures are fatal to the industry's recovery. Approximately 83% of travelers in a recent survey in 11 markets indicated that they would not travel if there was the possibility of quarantine, suggesting that the industry will not win back its passengers until there is an alternative to quarantine.
Although rapid tests for COVID-19 are inexpensive to produce, they are generally less accurate than PCR tests and may give false negative results. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) therefore states that all negative antigen test results must be confirmed by a PCR test.
