Covid-19 testing now offered by United, American, and Hawaiian Airlines

I think in a lot of cases, people feel kind of guilty about being on planes right now,” Potter told Recode.

In the US, airlines including United, American Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines are offering options for Covid-19 testing to passengers traveling to the state of Hawaii.

These will include at-home tests, drive-through testing, and in-person tests at the airport.

“For all of the countries that are off-limits to Americans — which, to be honest, is most of them — that is going to be … the condition for allowing travel to resume,” he told Recode.

Aaron McMillan, United Airlines’ operations policy and support managing director, told Recode that the airline itself wouldn’t keep records of a traveler’s personal health information.

But United would get notified from a testing partner “that said customer wouldn’t be able to travel that day” and the airline “would make the necessary arrangements,” he said.

Health experts at the airport’s testing site would then provide that United traveler with next steps for receiving care.

Even XpresSpa, a firm that normally provides in-terminal spa treatments for travelers, announced this month that, in Newark Airport and JFK, it will offer Covid-19 tests, which cost between $75 and $200 depending on the test or tests you get.

Clear told Recode that it’s in discussion with airlines and airports about integrating Health Pass into existing security screening processes for the general public.

Clear employees are already using the health-based version of the tech at the airport; United, one of the company’s partners, told Recode that it might support Clear’s plans for Covid-19 testing.

But the air travel industry having business opportunities with Covid-19 tests reflects the broader failure of the US approach to the public health crisis, argues Kenneth Goodman, director of the Institute for Bioethics at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.

Goodman also emphasized that testing negative on a Covid-19 test is by no means an assurance that you haven’t just contracted the illness or that you won’t contract it at the airport or on a plane.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has issued guidance for air travel, estimated last month that close to 11,000 people were exposed to Covid-19 on flights, according to the Washington Post.

“To really boil it down, airlines have focused almost entirely on convincing people to get back on planes, convincing them that it’s safe to do so, and trying to get them on and off the plane and through the airport as fast and as safely as possible,” he told Recode.

As airlines begin incorporating Covid-19 testing, they’re also considering what their plans would look like when a vaccine finally becomes available to the public.

McMillan, from United Airlines, told Recode that the company was considering how technology might be able to tie information about whether someone was healthy enough to fly to their boarding passes.

“Much like 9/11 changed the security process at the airport, this pandemic will change how people travel with health documentation going forward for sure,” McMillan added, echoing what many airline industry experts told Recode earlier this year.