Is it safe to fly now? One preflight PCR test could be the answer

A study conducted earlier this year shows there may be a way to reduce the number of Covid infections on board commercial airplanes to virtually zero.

Results of the study appeared in a peer-reviewed article published on Sept. 1 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings medical journal. The article — a joint effort by Mayo Clinic, the Georgia Department of Public Health and Delta Air Lines — showed that that one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed within 72 hours of flying decreased the rate of infected travelers onboard to 0.05%. That’s five people for every 10,000 passengers.

At the time of the study, the rate of infection in the U.S. was 1.1% — or about 1 in every 100 people.

The findings analyzed data from Delta’s preflight testing program which ran from December 2020 to May 2021.

Here’s how Delta’s testing program worked: Passengers on select flights from New York City and Atlanta could fly to Italy, without having to quarantine upon arriving, if they tested negative for Covid-19 via a PCR test within 72 hours before the flight, a rapid antigen test prior to departure, and a rapid antigen test upon landing.

Of the 9,853 people who tested negative via the PCR test, four tested positive at the airport via rapid antigen tests. The diagnoses were confirmed via a rapid molecular test, and these people were not allowed to fly.  

Of the passengers who flew to Italy, one tested positive upon landing.

This translates to one case detection per 1,970 travelers “during a time of high prevalence of active infection in the United States,” according to the article.

“That’s a pretty darn low number,” said Dr. Aaron J. Tande, the lead author of the article and an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The study suggests one PCR test within three days of flying renders subsequent testing at the airport largely unnecessary, especially when combined with onboard masking requirements and increasing vaccination rates among flyers.

The journal article mentions several “limitations” which may have affected the study’s results, including the role preflight tests had on traveler behavior. Participants with suspected Covid infections may have chosen not to travel. Others may have been more diligent about wearing masks and self-isolating knowing that they had to test negative in order to fly, said Tande.  

“I can’t say that that’s what made the number of tests that were positive so low — or was it truly that the 72-hour test was so good,” he told CNBC. “But … the end result is that it’s a safer flight for people, and that’s what we want.”