MILAN (ITALY) – Alitalia and the firm manning the Fiumicino aiport, Aerporti di Roma, issued a joint statement on Friday in which they said that there will be coronavirus-screened flights between Rome and New York from December 8.
This comes in the wake of a health ministry order issued in November that passengers flying between Rome and certain US cities can be tested for the virus 48 hours before departure and on arrival at the airport in a bid to avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine for inbound passengers.
After the first wave of the coronavirus, there was an effort to resume domestic flights in September. At that time, the airline experimented with COVID testing for some flights between Fiumicino and Milan’s city airport Linate.
But the flights were curbed to tackle the spread of a second wave of infections.
The passenger traffic at Fiumicino plummeted this year because of the pandemic and in early March there was a partial closure.
“This experimental phase will aim to evaluate the effectiveness and functionality of the new travel mode, with the aim of making it more widely available in view of the upcoming Summer 2021 season,” the airline and the firm said in the statement.
