Air Canada has announced a partnership with healthcare technology company Cue Health which provides passengers with access to the “most accurate” self-testing for travel. At present, only Air Canada’s U.S.-based passengers have access to the testing kit, but French and English roll-out for Canadian customers is planned for early 2022.
"Together with Cue Health, we're excited to extend our industry-leading range of testing options that make travelling easier and more predictable,” said Mark Nasr, Senior VP Marketing, eCommerce & Products, Air Canada.
U.S.-based customers can use Cue’s COVID-19 tests to meet Canada's specific travel testing requirements. Tests can be purchased three, six, or 10 at a time along with the reusable and portable Cue Cartridge Reader, which processes test results in about 20 minutes.
Each Cue test comes with access to a video proctoring session within the Cue Health App. This video proctoring session will be fully bilingual when Canadian service is launched.
As a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT), Cue's molecular COVID-19 test meets Canada's testing entry requirements. According to a press release, Cue's COVID-19 test is able to detect the Omicron variant and can be used on adults and children (2 years and over), with or without symptoms.
"Together with Air Canada, we can now equip U.S. passengers with access to their health information in real-time, providing people with much-needed peace of mind before and after their flights,” said Clint Sever, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Cue.
In addition, Cue has received Interim Order authorization from Health Canada to sell and distribute its COVID-19 test for both point-of-care and self-testing.
Air Canada previously launched COVID-19 self-test kids for Aeroplan members in partnership with Switch Health. The Switch Health RT-LAMP Test Kits offer both molecular and antigen tests, and meet the requirements to have a negative molecular test taken no more than 72 hours prior to re-entering Canada.
In an exclusive video interview with Open Jaw’s Nina Slawek, Mark Nasr explained how the Switch Health test kits work.
Tests are conducted under the remote supervision of a Telehealth professional from Switch Health, and include a digital report suitable for travel.
