Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend Ontario International Airport in the US has opened a drive-thru COVID-19 testing centre to help facilitate travel plans. Airport officials forecast that around 280,000 passengers will travel through the Southern California gateway this weekend.
The testing facility is situated in a parking lot between terminals 2 and 4 and will be open from 7am to 9pm seven days a week. Tests will be administered by Covid Clinic, a local non-profit which operates testing sites in California and Arizona. Among the tests being offered are rapid antigen tests with results available in 20 minutes. Rapid test specimens are processed on-site while others are sent to local third-party laboratories with results generally returned in two to four days.
“The availability of COVID-19 testing adds a new level of service and convenience to the Ontario airport experience,” said Mark Thorpe, CEO of the Ontario International Airport Authority. “It is our hope that on-site testing administered in the comfort of a passenger vehicle will provide peace of mind to our customers, guests and airport employees, as well as any of our neighbours who want to be tested.”
With air travel showing signs of gradual resurgence, Ontario Airport has recorded six consecutive months of traffic growth since reaching its low point in April when passenger levels declined by 93%. Having regained around 50% of its passenger volume compared to a year ago, Ontario’s recovery ranks first among airports in California and third nationally.
“The pandemic has impact life in every aspect, but we strive every day with our airline partners to take steps to reassure passengers that they can travel safely,” Thorpe said. While international carrier Volaris initiated nonstop services from the California hub to its Mexico City base earlier in November, Delta Air Lines resumed daily nonstop services to its Atlanta hub in July and twice daily, nonstop flights to Seattle-Tacoma Airport in October. Southwest Airlines restarted its Chicago Midway International airport route while United Airlines restarted flights to Houston’s George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in August. And Frontier Airlines plans to restart and add flights to seven popular US destinations from Ontario between February and May 2021.
