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A new digital “health passport” is to be piloted by a small number of passengers flying from the UK to the US for the first time next week under plans for a global framework for Covid-safe air travel. The CommonPass system, backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is designed to create a common international standard for passengers to demonstrate they do not have coronavirus.

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The Transport Secretary says he is "very hopeful" a new testing regime for travellers to the UK can be in place by 1 December, reducing the amount of time people need to spend in quarantine.

Grant Shapps said it could happen as long as there was enough testing capacity to support the plan.

The government has been consulting on a system where passengers would be tested after just a week of isolation.

But BA's new boss wants testing before departure, not quarantine on arrival.

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The rapid saliva swab, which is now available at Heathrow Terminals 2 and 5, is known as a Lamp (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test.British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific will now offer it to customers.

A Lamp test is quicker than the PCR test, which is widely used in the NHS, because the sample does not need to be sent to a laboratory.

Collinson, the company behind the initiative at Heathrow, admitted that the Lamp test is "slightly less sensitive" than the PCR test.

However, the Lamp test is considered to be much better than another rapid option - the antigen test.

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