Airlines Turn To Testing To Encourage Travel
Speaker 1: 00:00 Pro baseball, hockey and basketball have successfully done it. And now certain airlines and airports are creating bubbles for travelers. The idea is to allow you to travel and move freely about in the state or country. Thanks to pre-flight Corona virus testing. Joining me to explain how it works and where it's being tried is Lori, our attorney who writes about travel for the Washington post Laurie, welcome to midday edition. Thank you for having me Mark through much of the pandemic air travelers were required to quarantine upon arrival. If allowed to travel at all to many destinations, explain what's happening in the U S and around the world. Now, with the advent of this travel bubble, how does it work? Speaker 2: 00:37 So now that there's a wider availability of different kinds of tests that give more rapid results, a lot of countries are leaning on testing as a way to sort of pre-screen travelers that come in from other places in the us. This really kicked off in October. Um, Alaska had had a system in place where if you arrived in Alaska, from out of state, you could test. And if you tested negative, you could skip the 14 day quarantine, Hawaii, which has, you know, really depends on tourism, but has been shut off from much of this pandemic, decided in October that they would have a similar program in place. And so United American Hawaiian, Alaska airlines are among the airlines that sort of created these testing programs, where if you book a ticket on that airline to head to Hawaii, you can test beforehand. If your test results are negative, then you don't have to abide by the 14 day quarantine. Speaker 2: 01:34 It's becoming a popular alternative, um, health experts say, you know, it adds another layer to this concern about travel. They still encourage you to wash your hands, wear masks, social distance. I think one of the concerns about having testing in place is that people might think, Oh, I've tested negative. I'm fine. But they emphasize that it's not foolproof that, you know, the testing is only a point in time. And so even if you test negative on Tuesday, you're not necessarily guaranteed. So I think in Hawaii, in some instances, they may have folks that come from the mainland test twice on a lot of countries around the world are doing this about 120 requires some type of testing before you you'll be admitted to the country. Um, some of them will waive quarantine requirements. Others you'll still have to quarantine Speaker 1: 02:24 Pays for the testing. In most Speaker 2: 02:26 Cases, it's the traveler, I suppose insurance might, but I don't know insurance would be inclined to pick up the tab. So in most cases, it's the traveler. Um, I think the tests range from 55 to $250, depending on where you're testing and, um, what type of test you're taking. There are a few airports, LaGuardia airport and Oakland international up in Northern California are actually offering free coronavirus testing. So in that case, you don't have to pay for it. Speaker 1: 02:57 And what about air travel to Mexico? A lot of folks here, obviously, uh, so close to the border, go up and down to Mexico in normal times. What are the restrictions? Speaker 2: 03:05 So Mexico is an interesting case and it has actually become one of the more popular destinations because there is no testing requirement. There is no quarantine requirement. It's interesting because there is an agreement in place between the us and Mexico that they're restricting on non-essential travel, but clearly looking at where airlines are flying and where the passengers are going. There are folks that are clearly going to Mexico, probably for leisure travel and probably not for business Speaker 1: 03:36 Restrictions on essential travel only to and from Mexico seem not to be being enforced. Speaker 2: 03:42 Yeah, the, it looks like that. Just looking, looking at the numbers, you know, airlines are being very choosy about where they had flights because they don't want to be flying empty planes. And Mexico is definitely one of the destinations that they're adding to. So even though there's this agreement, I think it's set to expire on the 21st. So I think that's this week. I don't know if it'll be renewed, but non-essential travel is discouraged both to Mexico and to Canada, but clearly people are going, Speaker 1: 04:08 How badly has the domestic and international air travel industry been hit in the past 10 months or so by this pandemic, Speaker 2: 04:14 The airline industry has lost billions. And as you know, when the money from the cares act ran out at the end of September, tens of thousands of airline workers lost their jobs. There was a slight uptick in sort of July, August, but now that we're sort of entering this third wave in the U S you're starting to see the passenger numbers go down. So domestic travel is down about 64% compared to this time last year and international travel has taken an even bigger hit it's down 70.4%. Um, compared to the same time last year, Thanksgiving will be interesting. The holiday period will be interesting. As you know, health officials are encouraging people to stay put, but we're seeing, I think the TSA and airports around the country are preparing for an uptick in pass passengers. I don't know that there will be a huge number of people, but they're probably going to be more people traveling than really have been since this all started Speaker 1: 05:12 Airline and travel officials say about how well the travel bubble ideas working, how much can it help the bottom line? Speaker 2: 05:18 Well, uh, the Hawaii travel has really given and you have to keep an introspective. The volumes are so low that even a slight uptick looks like a huge bump on the graph, but Hawaii opened up, I think October 15th and United airlines said that they saw their bookings almost double from the previous two weeks. And other airlines said something similar. Alaska airlines said that testing has proved really popular. About 85% of the people that are flying from Alaska to Hawaii are opting to test. And they said by, I think by mid October, all the testing appointments had been taken through November. So you are seeing a slight bump in some areas. We may see a slight bump around this Thanksgiving time period. We'll have to see, but travel is still going to be down dramatically from what it, what it has been air travel. At least I don't looks as if there will be fewer people traveling by car, but it looks like if people are going to travel, most are opting to go by car. Speaker 1: 06:19 So passengers, air passengers are taking to this. What about public health experts? How effective do they say pre-flight testing can be after all there are false negative results. Speaker 2: 06:29 Exactly. And that's one of the things they caution. You'll hear airlines talk about this multi-layered approach, right? They're doing enhanced deep cleaning flight attendants. Tell me the planes have never been cleaner than they are now. There's social distancing. You know, there are all these layers and testing is another layer that adds to sort of the hope that you won't either catch the virus or spread the virus, but it's not foolproof because as you know, testing is only a point in time. Um, so they still caution that people should social distance wear masks, wash your hands, all these things. I think public health, health experts would prefer to see people still quarantine, but testing. I think the, at least the aviation industry, the travel industry sees as maybe testing as a way to sort of strike a balance between, you know, reopening the economy and preventing the spread of the virus. Speaker 2: 07:24 But as with anything, they caution, even the centers for disease control and prevention, caution that any travel there is a risk, right? It's not just when you're on the airplane, you have to think of your journey, right? It's the full journey it's getting to the airport. It's passing through the airport. It's going through TSA security. I mean, that's one of the things about airports is it brings together a lot of people who aren't related don't know each other may not have spent time. So they really encourage people that if you really are going to travel and have to travel, just keep in mind, all these protocols that they've been emphasizing all through this pandemic. Speaker 1: 08:00 I've been speaking with Washington post travel reporter, Lori R Tawny. Thanks very much, Laurie. Okay. Thanks so much, Mark.
