National Aviation Services (NAS) has signed a partnership agreement with global healthcare company, Abbott, to drive the implementation of Covid-19 rapid testing solutions at major airports and trans-border lounges across the Middle East and Africa.
The leading airport services provider is using its global network, local relationships, and industry expertise, to work with local authorities to deploy Abbott’s Panbio Covid-19 ag rapid test device and the ID NOW molecular point-of-care test system.
Both these solutions offer quick testing for Covid-19, thus encouraging and facilitating safer cross-border travel and supporting the global aviation industry to recover safely and sustainably.
These solutions can help fuel economies as more people resume international business, commerce and travel.
Abbott’s Panbio Covid-19 ag rapid test device is a highly reliable, portable, and affordable rapid antigen test, which has received the European health, safety, and environmental protection standard CE Mark, and the World Health Organization (WHO) use listing procedure (EUL) go-ahead.
It has been deployed in dozens of countries across the world and delivers results in 15-20 minutes with no instrumentation, providing a scalable and cost-effective solution for governments and private industry.
“Our collaboration in purchasing and deploying the Abbot systems is aimed at continuing efforts to help restore passenger confidence to aid further recovery of international travel,” explained NAS Group CEO, Hassan El-Houry.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, NAS, which is present in more than 50 airports, collectively managing in excess of 100 airlines and 50 airport lounges in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, has been driving efforts to implement digital solutions to help restart travel globally by collecting and verifying health data and ensuring authenticity of PCR test certificates of travelers.
In order to enhance safe international air travel, it also partnered with the World Economic Forum last April by using its KuwaitMosafer platform to share Kuwait’s vaccine records with countries and airlines across the globe.
NAS also introduced the medical utility network accreditor (MUNA), a patented blockchain technology that connects PCR testing labs in different countries and cities to verify and authenticate certificates for cross-border travel.
KuwaitMosafer and BelSalamah, another online platform developed by NAS for safe passage of travellers from high-risk countries to Kuwait, are both linked to the MUNA network.
El-Houry said that the MUNA data in Kuwait is showing promising results. “We discovered that the number of positive cases entering the country were three times higher before MUNA was introduced. This suggests a significant reduction in infected cases entering the country with forged certificates or fake results.”
Meanwhile, the Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub in Dubai South has announced that movements of private jets continued their impressive growth in 2021, with a 336% increase recorded during the first quarter.
Ali Al Naqbi, founding and executive chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) said: “Business aviation has always been a safe means of transportation as social distancing is already applicable in the whole process of the trip, and that was proven during the Covid-19 situation. A large number of people have migrated to the use of business aviation instead of commercial aviation.”
He added: “The pandemic has changed several aspects of our daily life and it altered our priorities too. We have seen a drastic change in passenger behavior with people more oriented towards health concerns rather than cost.
“We have also seen a new segment of people flying in private jets because business aviation has always eliminated all safety concerns by the maintenance of social distancing and the small group of people flying on board.”