Travelers returning to Israel are likely going to have to start paying for their mandatory COVID-19 test, The Jerusalem Post has confirmed.
An informed source at the airport told the Post that a decision on requiring customer payment is imminent.
“It could change in a week or six months,” they said.
Check2Fly conducts the coronavirus tests at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Since the company began offering testing at the airport in November, it has been charging to screen outgoing passengers. Travelers pay NIS 44.88 for a “slow test,” results of which are delivered within 14 hours, or NIS 134.64 for a “speedy test,” which can offer results in four hours.
The government has been offsetting the cost for incoming passengers. The source explained that the Health Ministry wants to shut down this program.
A representative for the ministry denied the report.
People who enter Israel are required to have taken a coronavirus test within 72 hours of boarding the airplane and to be screened again on arrival – even if they are vaccinated.
Check2Fly, which is operated by Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus and the company Omega, is currently part of a legal battle over the Airports Authority’s decision to grant the company the tender. The case is now frozen, but the source told the Post that it is possible that a second company would replace Check2Fly’s services for outgoing passengers in the near future, as well.