AviAtiON teStiNG
T E S T O F R ESO LV E Traveller testing is progressing - slowly - but scaling it up won’t be easy, says Gary Noakes.
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eathrow chief Executive John Holland-kaye doesn't mince his words on covid testing: “There will be no airports and airlines if we don’t solve this problem in the next few months,” he told industry colleagues at September’s world Aviation Festival. like most in the travel sector, he is convinced that traveller tests before departure are the only way to allow airlines to resume something close to normality.
IATA's Chief Economist Brian Pearce is right behind him, particularly after calculating that global air travel will be down 66% this year. “Quarantine, even if the market is open, is equivalent to a full travel ban, which is why we need a mechanism - such as effective testing – in order to open these markets up,” he warned. Heathrow’s passenger numbers remain at 15-20% of normal levels and testing facilities in Terminal 2 and 5, set up back in August in
partnership with Collinson and Swissport, sit unused because the UK Government has not yet given its approval: “The thing that stops people from travelling is inconsistency between governments,” Holland-Kaye said. While a co-ordinated global approach still seems a long way off, there have been pockets of progress. A trial began at Heathrow in mid-October inviting travellers heading to Hong Kong and Italy to take a 'rapid saliva swab', known as a Loop
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