If you’ve been craving an Italian summer, you now have some options. Italy is reopening its borders to American leisure travelers on Delta’s COVID-tested flights starting May 16th. According to the airline, customers now have several choices of nonstop COVID-tested services to Italy, including a daily service between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Milan, a thrice-weekly service from JFK to Rome, increasing to daily July 1, and five-times-a-week between Atlanta and Rome, increasing to daily May 26.
Delta is also adding three more nonstop routes this summer. Starting on July 2nd, customers can fly directly to Venice from JFK in addition to Atlanta to Venice and Boston to Rome from August 5th. All Delta flights to Italy are operated together with partner Alitalia.
To travel on Delta’s COVID-tested flights to Italy, it is mandatory that all customers get tested, regardless of vaccination status, before departure and on arrival. Passengers must also provide a negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test up to 72 hours before departure. Provided that all the tests are negative, customers will not need to quarantine in Italy and can continue their journey.
“Delta was the first U.S. airline to launch quarantine-free service to Italy and our COVID-tested flights have proved a viable means to restart international travel safely,” said Alain Bellemare, Delta’s executive vice president of international said in a statement. “It is encouraging that the Italian government has taken this step forward to reopen the country to leisure travelers from the U.S. on our dedicated protocol flights and further supporting economic recovery from the global pandemic,” he continued.
Last week, Delta launched a new service to Dubrovnik, Croatia from JFK starting July 2. The company is also offering service to Iceland and Greece from multiple United States gateways beginning May 28th. We are sure that more airlines and countries will soon follow in Delta’s footsteps.