Rome, Nov 27 (IANS): The Rome international airport will start the operation of "Covid-tested" flights from three US airports on a trial basis, according to authorities.

In the statement on Thursday, Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport's operator, said that starting in December, passengers on the Covid-tested flights coming from New York, Newark or Atlanta airports will not have to quarantine, if they test negative fwithin 48 hours of departure and upon arrival.

Such flights are also expected to be launched between the airport and German cities of Munich and Frankfurt with the aim of ensuring "the new travel procedure could be tested within the European Union", Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

After assessing the effectiveness of the tested flights in inhibiting the movement of infected people, the service is expected to be widely available in the summer of 2021, the statement added.

"The experiment will take advantage of the experience already successfully gained on the COVID-tested Rome-Milan flights in operation since September 16, 2020," said ADR.

The trial of the Covid-tested flights comes as both Italy and the US are still grappling with the coronavirus, with Italy's national caseload surpassing 1.5 million and that of the US nearing 13 million.