The seamless process allows JetBlue customers to more easily comply with Aruba’s enhanced entry protocols, enabling arriving residents and visitors who have tested negative for COVID-19 to avoid quarantine. The process is designed to cut down on wait times for entry and the need for customers to provide medical documents to authorities. Results and other medical information are not shared with JetBlue or the Aruban government, simply a confirmation that entry requirements have been satisfied. CommonPass is a digital health pass that enables safer travel by allowing people to document their COVID-19 test and vaccination status on their mobile phone and share it in a privacy-preserving manner with airline staff and immigration officials.
“Aruba is proud to be the first government to participate in CommonPass to support the industry’s efforts to ensure international travel can occur safely,” said Danguillaume Oduber, minister of tourism, public health and sport of Aruba. “Now more than ever, we feel it is critical to innovate and adapt as a tourism destination by integrating technology that creates a safe and seamless traveler experience in line with our stringent health protocols.”
"Our goal at Vault is to deliver quick, accurate results to all, especially when it comes to travel and varying government entry protocols,” said Jason Feldman, Vault Health founder and chief executive officer. “Vault's partnership with JetBlue and CommonPass takes the convenience and safety of our highly accurate supervised at-home test and combines it with their technology to make traveling in the time of COVID easier."
“Without the ability to trust COVID-19 test and vaccine records across international borders, it is difficult for countries to feel safe opening their borders,” said Dr. Bradley Perkins, chief medical officer of The Commons Project and former chief strategy & innovation officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “With trusted individual health data, countries can implement more nuanced health screening requirements for entry.”
With testing an important part of protecting each other and slowing the spread of COVID-19, JetBlue has stepped up messaging and reminders relating to testing. To ensure customers know how they can do their part, the airline has launched a landing page at jetblue.com/testing to help provide information on testing partnerships and requirements.
“For those traveling over the holidays to visit friends and relatives, testing is an easy way to both help ensure the safety of your loved ones, and to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Joanna Geraghty, president and chief operating officer, JetBlue. “By providing the tools for our customers to access more at-home and in-airport testing, as well as the tools to securely validate those test results, JetBlue is meeting its commitment to the safety of not only our customers and crewmembers, but also of the communities we serve. We appreciate our partners working with us to make these options available to our customers.”
JetBlue’s At-Home Testing Partner Expands Reach
The value of JetBlue’s at-home testing partnership with Vault continues to grow as more destinations announce they will accept this convenient testing option for the entry of visitors and residents alike. Visitors and residents entering Grenada and the Turks and Caicos islands are now allowed to show a negative PCR test from Vault as part of satisfying entry requirements. It comes as a result of the airline’s initiative to work with destination regions to promote safer travel with easy testing. Aruba became the first Caribbean nation to accept the Vault at-home test for entry of JetBlue customers. Vault’s PCR test also satisfies all U.S. state testing requirements for entry and travel.
With testing an important part of slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials in Puerto Rico, one of JetBlue’s largest destinations, are urging customers to get tested, including the use of Vault’s at-home testing before travel. Vault’s PCR test is now an accepted method of testing to avoid quarantine on the island after arrival.
"Easy access to testing is a key as the tourism industry outlines the roadmap for resumption of safe and responsible traveling," said Carla Campos, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. "By partnering with JetBlue and Vault Health to offer this simple at-home PCR saliva-based test alternative, we are confident that more JetBlue customers needing to travel to Puerto Rico will do so with pre-arrival testing; a requirement in effect to waive the 14-day mandatory quarantine.”
Expanded Testing Options in Boston
JetBlue is also making it easier and more convenient for traveling customers to receive COVID-19 testing in Boston, one of the airline’s largest focus cities, through a new partnership with XpresCheck. Starting in early January, XpresCheck will open a testing facility in JetBlue’s Terminal C at Boston Logan International Airport. The XpresCheck testing center will offer both rapid and PCR tests with appointments recommended.
The testing center, which will be located prior to security screening, will be available to customers who may want or need to be tested prior to travel, or those returning back to the Boston area. Currently, state officials require that all travelers returning to Massachusetts receive a negative PCR test result that has been administered up to 72 hours prior to arrival. Quarantine is not required after a negative result has been received. Travelers arriving in Boston will be able to simply walk off their flight, grab their bags, and obtain a test without another trip to a medical facility.
“We are pleased to welcome JetBlue to our network of airline partners. Our new partnership with JetBlue, starting in Boston, will bring the convenience of on-site COVID-19 testing to passengers whether traveling to a destination that requires a negative COVID-19 test for entry or returning to Massachusetts and seeking to test out of the state mandated quarantine. The availability of trusted, verifiable health status information, including test results, will continue to help get travelers back to traveling in 2021,” said Doug Satzman, XpresSpa Group chief executive officer.
JetBlue customers who are seeking more information or to make an appointment before and after travel should visit xprescheck.com.Customers should thoroughly research entry requirements for their intended destination to determine best timing for testing and accepted testing methods. Entry requirements are subject to change, in some cases with little notice.
Expanded Testing Options in New York
JetBlue’s partnership with NYC Test & Trace Corps is also expanding, with the addition of rapid PCR testing at no cost to the patient at JetBlue’s Terminal 5 (T5) at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In addition to rapid testing, the NYC Test & Trace Corps testing site at T5 will continue to offer traditional PCR testing.
To help promote safer reentry into New York, Test & Trace Corps will trial a partnership with JetBlue to distribute test kits to customers with domestic itineraries that also include a return to New York. Customers who meet the trip criteria can stop by the Just Ask desk to pick up a test kit, which they can keep until they are within 72 hours of their return to New York, and then self-administer and mail, in order to satisfy New York State’s pre-arrival testing requirement. Once the lab receives the test, results generally will be provided within 48 hours.
NYC Test & Trace Corps is also offering PCR testing and rapid PCR testing, at no cost to the patient, at LaGuardia Airport in the Terminal B parking garage, on Level 1.
JetBlue’s latest efforts and partnerships are part of the airline’s broader Safety from the Ground Up program, which focuses on healthy crewmembers, clean air and surfaces, fewer touchpoints, as well as travel flexibility. The airline is dedicated to continuing to evolve this program while focusing on ensuring customers who want or need to travel feel comfortable. To learn more about the airline’s safety program, visit jetblue.com/safety.
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