Spreading Airport Traffic to Avoid Long Lines

Booths for testing for the novel coronavirus are being installed at Keflavík International Airport in preparation for June 15, when tourists will have the option of being tested instead of being quarantined for 14 days, as is currently required.

There will be ten booths to begin with. Their location will be ahead of border control. Once passengers have been tested, they go through border control and subsequently pick up their baggage and leave the airport, Chief Superintendent Víðir Reynisson tells mbl.is . At yesterday’s press conference, authorities explained that tourists will be allowed await their test results at their accommodation.

The number of passengers at the airport will have to be limited to the healthcare services’ capacity for screening. Up to 2,000 tests can be taken a day.

“Traffic at the airport will to some extent have to be directed according to the capacity of testing,” Víðir states. “First and foremost, we don’t want people to have to wait at the airport for long. It can be very complicated in some instances, but we will do our best to spread the traffic throughout the day.”

He states that the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management has cooperated with Isavia, the company that operates the airport, in this regard.

Víðir stresses the important role of people in the tourism industry once the borders open.

“These are the people who communicate the most with the tourists and the best people to assess their health. We must rely on them being able to give good instructions if they notice tourists getting ill, or showing symptoms, and informing them where to find a public health clinic or healthcare, and at the same time [we rely on them] to look after such a group if someone needs to be quarantined,” he states. “No one but employees of the travel industry can do this, and they simply have to support us in this project.”