Alitalia starts quarantine-free flights from New York

The trend of rapid tests and quarantine-free flights in transatlantic travel seems to continue. Alitalia brings the eligible travelers from New York to Rome without quarantine!

Delta and KLM have just announced that they will start with a Covid-free travel corridor in a few days, and now the national airline of Italy is also joining the concept. From now on, passengers from the states can enter Italy without quarantine – at least on the New York-Rome route, as SimpleFlying had reported shortly. However, travelers are facing an extensive test program, as well as other stricter requirements that they must adhere to.

Quarantine-free flights from New York to Rome available starting tomorrow

In the country itself, the test strategy of the Covid-tested flights between Milan and Rome has already been tested for some time. Alitalia plans to extend this attempt to transatlantic travel from December 8, 2020 and will start flights from New York to Rome, where passengers do not have to be quarantined upon arrival. The airline will operate one of three weekly flights from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York to Fiumicino Airport (FCO) in Rome as quarantine-free flights. However, there is still a travel warning in Italy, because the country is still classified as a risk area. Therefore, only essential, important trips from the USA are currently allowed, such as for business reasons of companies, the return of EU citizens, Italian citizens, relatives of Italian citizens and students who are allowed to fly back to Italy. The following measures are required for exempting the quarantine:

• All passengers must have a negative corona test 48 hours prior to departure or an antigen test directly at New York Airport prior to departure.
• Upon arrival at the airport in Rome, passengers must undergo another antigen test. Only if this is negative can passengers enter Italy without quarantine.

Every traveler is also obliged to change their mask every four hours. In addition, all passengers must confirm before boarding that they have not come into contact with infected people. The airline’s intention is to also start a test in international travel in order to test the effectiveness of the strategy, with the aim of integrating this concept into the everyday travel of passengers more frequently and on other flight connections before the summer season 2021. Because quarantine measures in particular are a particularly strong obstacle to international air traffic. The airline now hopes to use tests as a means of reopening international travel and generating increased revenue.

Delta and Alitalia also launch non-quarantine Atlanta-Rome connection

But that’s not all. Delta Air Lines, in cooperation with Alitalia, had previously also decided on quarantine-free flights between Rome Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, which should come into force on December 19. Thus, all travelers from Atlanta who join the test attempt are also exempt from quarantine on arrival in Rome. However, the test rules are slightly different on these flights.

Delta and Alitalia passengers traveling between Atlanta and Rome must take a PCR test 72 hours prior to departure, followed by a rapid test at the Atlanta airport prior to boarding. After arriving in Italy, another rapid test must be carried out, as well as before leaving for Atlanta at the airport in Rome. However, the entry restrictions, which are only accessible to travelers with a substantial reason as described above, also apply to this route.

Conclusion on Alitalia’s transatlantic flights without quarantine

Until recently, hardly anyone would have thought that rapid tests could be introduced to bypass quarantine in air traffic. However, despite the hopeful announcements, the vaccine will be a while in coming. In the meantime, the aviation industry is looking for alternatives: the introduction of a comprehensive test program could be the solution! With their announcement, KLM and Delta recently announced the start of transatlantic travel. Italy’s national airline is now joining in and will begin this test as early as tomorrow on the flight connection from New York to Rome.

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