Dublin and Cork Airports might be equipped with Pre-Flight Covid testing facilities soon

The Oireachtas Transport Committee has been informed that, the Covid-19 checkpoint at Dublin and Cork airports will be available to passengers by mid – October, with the help and cooperation of the government.

At present the Dublin and Cork airports have the ability to carryout 15,000 pre-departure PCR tests a day, Dalton Philips, CEO of daa, which operates Dublin and Cork Airports said this to the Oireachtas Transport Committee this morning.

He also proposed that the government should adopt the European Union’s traffic light system. This particular light system will help in the free movement of passengers traveling from green and orange areas, and a testing restriction for the ones coming from red coded places.  

Daa’s research shows that these kinds of pre-departure testing help to reduce the risk of virus transmission and importation by more than 80%, Mr. Philips said.

“Ultimately however, Government needs to approve a rapid turnaround, low cost, scalable testing solution for use in Irish airports so that we can move quickly as the market introduces products better suited to airport operations, for example LAMP or antigen testing,” he said.

Shannon Group which operates Shannon Airport also said that daa’s decision is correct.  It’s CEO, Mary Considine said that testing should be an alternative method rather than restriction of people’s movements.

Hildegarde Naughton, Minister of State for Transport said that the reason why aviation sector prescribe antigen testing is because it is cheaper and requires less time for producing the result.

But she said that antigen-based testing is not considered by the World Health Organization, to be suitable for an international travel testing context.

Even though she acknowledges the daa’s efforts to find a proper testing method, she also said that their application is not fully validated.

Ms Naughton asked the government to think of the present situation of the country inn terms of health level and also not to give a quick date regarding the testing at the airports.   

WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control are not supporting antigen testing as an authentic test for traveling, once they approve this testing process and change the decision, the airports can use it, said Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan.