Rome airport to offer first transatlantic coronavirus-tested flights

Rome-Fiumicino International Airport will be the first in Europe to offer coronavirus-tested flights to the U.S., Reuters reported on Thursday.

Starting next month, passengers on flights operated by Delta Air Lines and Alitalia between Rome and some U.S. cities can be tested 48 hours before departure and on arrival at the airport to avoid the two-week quarantine mandated by Italy for arriving passengers.

The program will be available to travelers flying from Atlanta, Newark, N.J., and New York, according to Reuters. 

Delta said in a statement Thursday that on Dec. 19 it will resume routes from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Rome for those traveling for work, health and education purposes.

The airline said it worked with the Georgia Department of Public Health to develop a blueprint for reopening international travel.

Top Delta executives said in a statement that Georgia and Italy have “demonstrated leadership in testing protocols and practices that can safely reopen international travel without quarantine requirements.”

Fiumicino in early March announced a partial closure, and passenger traffic has declined since due to the pandemic, Reuters reported.

Alitalia experimented with COVID-19 testing on fights between Fiumicino and Milan’s Linate airport in September, but the government restricted movement between the regions amid a second wave of coronavirus infections, the newswire reported.