Delta Air Lines and Alitalia will begin operating "Covid-tested" flights between Rome and the United States that allow select travelers to avoid quarantine requirements upon arrival in Italy.
In the trial phase, approved by Italy's Ministers of Health, Transportation and Foreign Affairs, passengers arriving from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark and Atlanta will be tested for Covid-19 both prior to departure and upon arrival in Rome. Rome's Fiumucino Airport already has had a rapid testing center available for several months. Passengers with negative results on both tests can skip the 14-day quarantine requirement in Italy.
Delta plans to relaunch service between Atlanta and Rome on Dec. 19, and its program will consist of four testing stages for passengers. They will require a Covid Polymerase Chain Reaction test taken up to 72 hours prior to departure, followed by rapid tests at the airport in Atlanta, upon arrival in Rome and again in Rome prior to departure to the United States.
The Delta flights are open to all citizens of the European Union as well as U.S. citizens traveling for business, health or education purposes, according to the carrier. Italy's pandemic rules currently do not allow U.S. citizens to visit for leisure purposes.
"Based on the modeling we have conducted, when testing protocols are combined with multiple layers of protection, including mask requirements, proper social distancing and environmental cleaning, we can predict that the risk of Covid-19 infection—on a flight that is 60 percent full—should be nearly one in a million," according to Mayo Clinic chief value officer Henry Ting, who has been advising the carrier on the program and other Covid-19 protocols.
Alitalia already has been offering Covid-tested flights between Rome and Milan since September, requiring passengers to either be tested before boarding or present a medical certificate with negative results. Aeroporti de Roma, which runs Fiumucino, said Italy's order also will allow for Covid-tested flights to Frankfurt and Munich.