Passengers on a flight from Heathrow to Newark will use the CommonPass system from Wednesday.
CommonPass is backed by the World Economic Forum and designed as a register of those who have tested negative for Covid-19. Passengers are tested up to 72 hours before travel and upload results to their mobile phone.
They then complete any additional health screening questionnaires required by the destination country.
Cathay Pacific is also involved with CommonPass and is testing it on flights between Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Guardian suggests one pitfall of the scheme is that tests used generally in the UK are not tests of infectiousness, as they do not distinguish between those who have the virus and are infectious and those who are no longer infectious. It says there have been “many false results as a consequence”.
