Daily US Times: Passengers flying from UK’s Heathrow airport to Hong Kong and Italy on Tuesday will be the first to have the option of paying for a rapid Covid test before checking in.
The Covid-19 test will cost £80 and the result is guaranteed within an hour.
The step is taken to help people travelling to destinations where proof of a negative result is required on arrival.
A growing number of countries have listed the UK as being “at risk”, meaning travellers from the country face more restrictions.
Hong Kong authorities now require people to show they have a negative test result, taken within 72 hours of a flight from London.
The rapid saliva swab, which is now available at Heathrow airport’s Terminals 2 and 5, is known as a Lamp (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test.
Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Cathay Pacific will now offer it to customers.
Chief executive of the aviation trade body Airlines UK, Tim Alderslade, said he would like the cost of the test to be lower.
He said: “For business passengers £80 is probably quite competitive but we’ve certainly said to the government in terms of introducing a test on arrival in the UK anything from £50-£60 would be better.”
A Lamp test is quicker than the PCR test, which is widely used in the National Health Service (NHS), because the sample does not need to be sent to a laboratory.
The Lamp test, however, is considered to be much better than another rapid option – the antigen test.
You may read: First results of Russia’s vaccine trial may include 5,000-10,000
