CDC is considering this while airlines have a differing view.
98 thoughts on “Mandatory Testing of All Hawaii Travelers? Feds & Airlines Weigh In”
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CDC is considering this while airlines have a differing view.
Comments are closed.
I would like to the data related to travel on airlines that shows it is a high risk activity. I would think that if it were high risk, then the airlines would have cut back. I recall that the highest risk is at home. I also think the SWA’s G Kelley’s analogy is a fair one. The air filtration in grocery stores is not as good as on SWA’s, for one (replaces cabin air every 3-4 minutes per its advertising). And I get exposed at grocery stores more often than flying: in the last 38 weeks, about 40 – 45 grocery store visits compared to 3 flights. Also, isn’t Hawaii’s infection rate quite high for very restrictive travel rules?
I believe that requiring a test 4 days in advance of Arrival would be much more practical than the current 3 Day Plan. If your flight departs on Sunday you are currently required to test on Friday. It is difficult to receive your results on a weekend. A 4 Day Plan would be much more practical for weekend travel.
Thank you and Aloha
Hi Jon.
What you are suggesting has been proposed by many if not most stakeholders. It doesn’t seem like that change will be forthcoming, however, for whatever reason.
Aloha.
If you got the vaccine, do you still need to be tested? I am going to Honolulu in early April with my family, traveling on Alaska Airlines. Thank You for our feedback.
Hi Andrea.
Please see our update on vaccine travel.
Aloha.
I see this as placing an undue/unequal burden on Hawaii residents that don’t have a choice but to fly; we don’t have the capability to drive like all the other states. Financially it would prove much more devastating/burdening to Hawaii residents than our mainland counterparts. I don’t see that interisland would’ve be exempted from testing. We already don’t see our family and friends and this puts another nail in the coffin.
I believe that we need to require testing within 4 days of arrival instead of 3. If you fly on Sunday as I recently did you must take your test on Friday. It’s difficult getting results over a weekend. The additional day would make things run much smoother.
Southwest Airlines’ analogy is likely based on a published Harvard University study completed in October that found traveling on a plane was less likely to result in contracting covid than going grocery shopping. Isn’t it time for some covid policies to be based on fact and available data rather than media-manufactured fear? Any data I have read concerning airline travel has indicated there has been extremely little covid transmission. On an airplane or otherwise, you wear a mask, you sanitize your hands, avoid touching your face, wash your hands when you can,and you won’t contract covid. Or alternatively you can listen to the one-sided news, hide under your bed and lead a sheltered life, and you won’t contract covid. But if you do this, please stop calling for unnecessary and illogical controls on those who wish to live their lives as normally and safely as possible. You can’t always undo stupid, and mandatory testing costing more than the airline ticket itself will kill airline travel.
I don’t recall any precedence for disease testing before travel. We don’t test for measles (also highly contagious), influenza, HIV, hepatitis, etc. The issue will be litigated before any rollout is implemented. By the way, SWA Kelly has a point – we aren’t talking about testing for train or cruise travel are we? Costco visits, which can be just as dense as airplanes?
Airlines are right: this equals a major demand limiter for just one travel mode.
The cruise industry is talking about testing AND vaccines. Amtrak requires masks, but no testing. They do have a limit on passenger capacity however, think its 50%. Took the auto train a month ago, splurged for own cabin and felt very safe.
The CDC can’t seem to even agree with itself on what protocols should be in place. First it was ‘masks are not needed’, now double masking is recommended. School’s need to close, now it’s ok to send my kid to school because kids are safer at school. Airlines are safe because the air is 90% fresh air run through a HEPA filter, now their proposing a mandatory negative test before flying. This kind of chaos and confusion is exactly why the US is in the position it is. If our lovely government had looked at COVID as the worst case scenario early on and implemented more drastic protocols, we’d likely be in a much better position now. Oh…..wait, that’s right….’Mericans can’t just stand idly by and let the government take away our civil rights. Total joke, you can’t even get half the country to wear masks, how they going to implement a mandatory test for flying. Logistical nightmare. Everyone ripped on Hawai’i when we started mandatory quarantine/testing…turns out we may have been on to something…..
I would rather manditory testing than manditory experimental vaccines. I’m not getting vaccinated for personal health reasons, so manditory vaccines would end my travel anywhere.
The biggest issue with Hawaii program is the restriction to ‘approved’ testers. Here in Las Vegas that makes it impossible to be sure you can get a test and results in 72 hours before final leg of flight! Approved testers cuts number of sites, in some cases, by about 90%.