In response to the French Transport Minister’s plans to roll out airport testing measures, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in the South of France has established a room dedicated to antigen tests in its Terminal 2. The testing facility is supported by the regional health authority (ARE) and in partnership with Air France and Alitalia.
The tests are being offered on a voluntary basis to passengers travelling to French overseas territories via Paris Orly or Paris Charles de Gaulle in France, or to Rome in Italy. They will also be available to all outbound passengers on request. Passengers will be able to turn up to the testing centre from four hours up to 90 minutes before departure, with results given in about 30 minutes.
During the trial phase, Nice Airport has agreed with Air France and Alitalia to involve both carriers in the process. Six stations will be available for taking samples, while four will be allocated to the administrative, registering and passenger tracking phases. The testing room will be open daily from 5am.
“By working hand in hand with French public services the city of Nice, the health authorities, the airlines and their groundhandling agents, we are creating the optimal conditions to enable the largest number of people to be tested all while maintaining fluid passenger flows and the punctuality of departing flights,” said Franck Goldnadel, Chairman of the Board for Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur. “We would like to thank the Minister for Transport, his teams and all the partners in this pilot project for having trusted us to implement this experiment, which is set to be deployed on a wider scale.”
The implementation of these antigen tests extends the services provided by the PCR testing room opened in mid-July, under the aegis of the regional health authority to enable passengers to get tested and in line with the airport’s comprehensive policy to ensure uninterrupted commercial services since 16 March. In line with this policy, disinfection agents have been deployed to supplement the usual cleaning staff. Automatic hand sanitiser dispensers have also been installed along routes taken by passengers through the airport, near self-service check-in terminals for passengers and their luggage and at security checkpoints. Likewise all washrooms have reinforced health protection measures in place including air and surface purifiers, while terminal ventilation networks have been upgraded with high-performance filtration technology. The existing quality of air treatment has been increased by 50% by replacing the F7-type filter models with F9-type filters like those used in hospitals.
