International travel: How to pay under $100 for Covid PCR test to get overseas

Heading overseas is harder than ever thanks to Covid, and, when you factor in the Covid PCR swabs, rapid antigen tests and mandatory travel insurance, it’s also more expensive than ever.

But there is a way to save at least some money before you jump on a plane – by getting your Covid test done at the airport rather than a lab around the city.

At Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne International Airports, you can book an express Covid PCR test for $79, with the results guaranteed in under 90 minutes.

Rapid antigen tests are also available for $59, with results coming through in 30 minutes.

Getting tested at private labs across those cities usually cost at least $140 and that price more than doubles to around $300 if you want a guarantee your results will come back in less that 24 hours.

Of course, there are upsides and downsides to both options.

Getting tested at the airport, before your flight, obviously means you need to get there even earlier than you normally would.

And with Qantas recommending passengers on their international flights arrive at the airport a whopping four hours early, this means you could be looking at a six-hour wait time at the airport.

The airport testing clinics in Sydney and Melbourne also don’t open until 6am, which means if you’re flying any earlier than 8am, a PCR test at the airport is probably out of the question.

At Brisbane International Airport, the testing clinic doesn’t open until 8am, pushing your plans further along.

There’s also a risk you test positive to coronavirus at the airport, which means you’d only have a few hours to postpone or cancel your travel plans. This window could be too late for many companies and airlines and you could lose money.

With most airlines requiring a negative Covid test within 72 hours of your flight, getting a test earlier, instead of just a few hours before, gives you plenty of time to make other arrangements if you do test positive.

However getting a test at the airport does have some advantages – particularly if you wanted to save at least $60 on a PCR test and if you don’t have a printer at home.

Histopath Diagnostic Specialists, the lab that runs the testing clinics at the three international airports, will print out your negative PCR proof on the spot, which you can take to show the booking counter.

You can also attend the airport pre-departure clinic and ask to have your negative PCR result test printed if you’ve been tested at a community Histopath lab outside of the airport.

Histopath offering cheaper tests is a new thing, with the lab charging $150 for an express PCR test at the airport back in October.

The company’s operations director Greg Granger told news.com.au that Histopath had been able to cut costs because it had streamlined its processes.

“We’ve been doing this since right at the start of the outbreak ... and we’ve cut a lot of fat in between,” he said.

Mr Granger said because of their set-up at the airport - with all of their staff, testing platforms and a lab based in the facility - they’d managed to get end-to-end sample collection, which had helped them cut costs further.

“At the end of the day, we couldn’t figure out why the market has landed where it has, it might be too far to say it’s gouging, but it’s close,” he said.

“Whether we like it or not, pathology are the gatekeepers of travel now and we have an obligation to get costs down.”

Mr Granger said the company continued to increase its efficiency and speed with PCR testing and took aim at companies that were charging hundreds for quick tests.

“Instead of pokceting that, we said ‘let’s put the price down,” he said.

“For the same type of express service it can be $300 - that’s to get it the same day. That’s stupid, they’re not even trying.

“Maybe they don’t have the efficiencies on the ground, but as long as the government is mandating testing, the private labs have an obligation to provide it as cheap as possible.”

The lab has been running at the airport since Covid hit Australia last year and was used by airport workers, those employed in hotel quarantine and frontline workers to get rapid PCR tests.

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However the lab has pivoted since international borders tentatively opened for Australians last month.

NSW and Victoria recently reinstated a 72-hour quarantine for all international arrivals from Saturday after the variant of concern Omicron was identified in southern Africa.

All arrivals into Australia must be tested for coronavirus upon their return and must quarantine for three days while they await their results as the world works to understand what Omicron will do.

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