Air Canada Working on Covid-19 Rapid Tests for Aviation

Air Canada announced on July 8, 2020, that it is working with Spartan Bioscience, a biotechnology company, to deploy Covid-19 rapid testing in aviation. The airline is paving the way for tests available at airports for passengers and employees.

Air Canada is interested in testing systems to fight against coronavirus.(credits:Wikimedia)

Soon, rapid tests in airports? 

Air Canada is leading the way by partnering with Spartan Bioscience, a company that works with portable Covid-19 testing systems. Spartan is developing a proprietary swab for the collection of DNA samples for the detection of COVID-19. The Spartan test cartridges (reagents) and the portable DNA analyzer called the Spartan Cube remain pending Health Canada licensing.

Example of DNA testing made by Spartan (credits:Spartan Bioscience)

"We believe the availability of a rapid, accurate, portable molecular test for COVID-19 will add yet another effective layer." said Samuel Elfassy, Vice President, Safety at Air Canada. In May, the company had already launched its Air Canada CleanCare+ program, which aims to establish a health protocol. Among the measures announced are the distribution of care kits to passengers to disinfect their hands, temperature checks and passenger spacing.

If the project is successful, rapid tests could be carried out by non-medical staff at airports. As a first step, we can imagine testing symptomatic people and employees in contact with passengers. If airports and airlines had the ability to quickly test passengers, the level of security would be increased. For employees, pilots and cabin crew, the tests would also be very useful. As a reminder, some studies estimate that 1 in 4 infected persons is asymptomatic.

Air Canada facing the outbreak

Air Canada had to lay off more than half of its staff during the crisis. However, it has just received C$1.2 billion in cash to help it get through the ongoing crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This new transaction brings to $5.5 billion the liquidity that Air Canada has obtained in the markets in various transactions since the start of the pandemic in Canada in March. 

Air Canada is giving itself three years to offset the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The company must therefore try to fill its aircraft as quickly as possible while respecting the new requirements.

Passengers concerns 

The aim of the coronavirus control measures as a whole is also to reassure the most worried passengers. Although air traffic is increasing in some parts of the world, the recovery of air transport is expected to be long. According to IATA's latest survey, 58% of respondents say they have avoided air travel in recent months and 33% say they will avoid travelling in the future because of the coronavirus. 

Also in the same study, 84% of those surveyed are worried about becoming infected during their trip. A majority of travelers surveyed plan to return to travel to see family and friends (57%), to vacation (56%) or to do business (55%) as soon as possible after the pandemic subsides. But, 66% said that they would travel less for leisure and business in the post-pandemic world. And 64% indicated that they would postpone travel until economic factors improved (personal and broader). The measures taken will not bring the levels back to 2019 levels but could accelerate recovery in the medium term. 

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