United Plans Newark-London Virus Testing as Tool to Spur Travel

  • Program to start next month will collect data for officials
  • Airlines have sought to restart traffic on lucrative routes

Passengers who test positive won’t be allowed to board, and a negative won’t exempt travelers from U.K. quarantine.

Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. will offer rapid coronavirus testing on flights to London from Newark, New Jersey, in a bid to show governments that a pre-departure testing regime can provide a way to ease strict quarantine rules.

The pilot program, running from Nov. 16 to Dec. 11, also is aimed at giving customers on the trans-Atlantic route “an added layer of peace of mind,” United spokesman Josh Earnest said.