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Bloomberg
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd will carry out rapid pre-flight coronavirus testing for cabin crew and pilots from its base at London’s Heathrow airport, the company said on Monday.
The carrier said it launched a trial on flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong on September 30 and is planning a wider roll-out that will involve testing every operating crew at least once a month.
The trial comes at a time when coronavirus cases are rising in the UK and globally and travel restrictions abound. The measures are
designed to “instill confidence in flying,†Virgin Atlantic said in a statement.
However, the beleaguered carrier also reiterated calls for the wider development of a rapid passenger testing system that would enable healthy flyers to avoid mandatory quarantine measures in force in the UK and the US Such tests are seen as the best hope for the aviation industry to overcome additional travel curbs that have brought a modest traffic rebound over the summer to a halt. Virgin Atlantic has halved its pre-virus payroll to preserve its rescue funding.