Emirates Now Conducting Airport COVID-19 Tests

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: April 15, 2020

35 comments

Update: As it turns out, this testing was found to be extremely inaccurate.

Emirates claims to have become the first airline to conduct on-site rapid COVID-19 tests for passengers.

In this post:

Emirates’ coronavirus tests in Dubai

Emirates and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) have teamed up to introduce new precautions as of today on select flights. On today’s Emirates flight from Dubai to Tunisia, all passengers were tested for COVID-19 before departure.

The blood test was conducted by the DHA at the group check-in area of Dubai International Airport Terminal 3, and results were available within 10 minutes.

For now Emirates will only be doing this for flights to destinations that require COVID-19 test certificates.

The airline has also implemented other policies to encourage social distancing:

Protective barriers have been installed at check-in desks to provide additional safety measures for passengers and employees
Gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer have been made mandatory for all employees at the airport
Passengers are required to wear their own masks when at the airport and on aircraft
Emirates has modified inflight service for health and safety
Emirates is requiring passengers to check most carry-ons, with the exception of laptop bags, handbags, briefcases, and baby items

A glimpse at the future of travel?

A lot of us aren’t just wondering when travel will return to normal, but whether travel will ever return to normal. I’m not just talking about demand recovering, but will the flying experience ever fully be the same?

Will social distancing be the new norms? Will more passengers just start wearing face masks? Will there be health screening before every flight? I do think we’ll see some things change over the coming years.

For example, recently I wrote about how Etihad Airways is trialing new kiosks that can tell if you’re sick, and it seems to me like Emirates’ initiative here takes that to a new level.

If COVID-19 is here to stay, will proof of a vaccine against it eventually be required to travel? Or in the meantime (or for those who don’t get one), could tests like this become the norm when flying? One has to wonder…

Bottom line

While the concept of having blood drawn at airport check-in doesn’t sound particularly fun, in a way I find it positive that something like this is already a possibility, because it starts to allow a return to normalcy.

If we can get to the point where this can be done at a reasonable cost and is readily available, then it might just be part of the airport experience, just like going through security.

More discussion »

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Jenn Guest

June 29, 2020, 12:35 pm

Sorry but giving your dna to random airports or governments is crossing the line. Plaude money tracks what you buy social media tracks what you say now you want my dna for complete s d total control? And people are ok with this? What a sad sad world.

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Monique Guest

April 17, 2020, 4:18 pm

I applaud Emirates on making an attempt to keep their passengers safe opposed to whining and looking for bail-outs (that will eventually end up in the shareholders and CEOs pockets). We (US) could learn a lot from other countries if we stop with the hating. As far as the results not being accurate because of the quick turnaround time, then the White House is in for a rude awakening because the test they administer gives instant results. Which leads me to the questions, if the White House has the instant result tests then why don't the hospitals? Only the people that don't travel thinks the United States is so great; because I've traveled the world and the one thing I've seen is that many countries are doing so much more than the US. We are so busy fighting among each other these days that we are making little difference in the world opposed to other countries that's working collectively to make their counties great. The only thing the US has been great in the past 3 years is great at hatred, racism, name-calling, division and lying. Emirates will ALWAY be my first choice of flying.

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Sven Member

April 16, 2020, 2:15 pm

This is the medical equivalent to the security theatre the TSA is doing.

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Wilhelm Guest

April 16, 2020, 7:22 am

This is a typical knee jerk reaction which completely overblows the problem. Some issues I can see: 1. Cost 2. Availability of medically trained staff & test kits 3. Reliability of tests 4. Time used will increase check in times 5. Actual risk reduction Diseases have always existed, pandemics come every once in a while. Some countries seem to have managed to contain the outbreak through test & trace, quarantine and social distancing. These measures work, while this measure is mainly theatre.

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Janet Gold

April 16, 2020, 3:17 am

While these rapid tests are not perfect, with up to 30% false negatives, it would help weed out assymptomatic carriers. I think this type of test may become required for international travel to begin, just as it will become common at schools and factories. Once the vaccine is approved you will likely need a certificate like we have for yellow fever. Those who have had Covid 19 may get a certificate as well unless the virus mutates. Until then international travel will be limited.

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