CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago-based United Airlines is set to offer free COVID-19 tests for passengers heading to London.
The company announced Thursday that the new monthlong pilot testing trial will only apply to travelers going to London through the United hub in New Jersey or New York.
Joe Schwieterman, the professor of Public Services and director of the Chaddick Institute at DePaul University, said the trial is noteworthy because of new rapid test technology — developed by Abbott, also a Chicago-based company — that will require all passengers to get tested before they embark on the flight.
Starting Nov. 16, Schwieterman said the tests will happen Mondays, Wednedays and Fridays. Folks who do not wish to be tested will be put on another flight that isn't part of the trial.
"It's really a bit of a game-changer in how they are approaching this and they want to make sure everyone on that flight is COVID-free, a new twist," Schwieterman said.
It's a new twist but an old practice: Titantic passengers were screened for health checks because officials didn't want an epidemic to break out — which is what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic.
Schwieterman said United already is running a similar pilot program with trips from San Fransisco to Hawaii, where passengers can bring a verified negative COVID test 24 hours before departure or tests can be done at the gate.
"That coindided with Hawaii lifting its quarantine so everybody that lands can go enjoy Hawaii without quarantining," he said. "But there is still a quarantine in the UK. The thinking here is that if United can demonstrate that it's arriving with 100% COVID-free flight at the airport, that makes a pretty good case that those passengers should not have to quarantine in the UK."
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He said that if the trail run is successful and shows that flights do not have the virus, the company will step up the pressure on regulations that call for TSA screeners and mandatory visiter quarantines after traveling.
The airline business has suffered greatly due to the pandemic, with less people traveling, especially using public modes of transportation. In September, United announced it furloughed over 16,000 employees and laid off over 36,000 in July.
Schwieterman said that only now is the industry seeing an uptick in domestic travel but it is still not even at 50% of the norm. But internationally, things are rough, he said. However, the US could see a decrease in air travel as cases surge nationwide again.