A ‘fit to fly’ certificate, also called a ‘fit to travel’ certificate or letter, is a medical certificate signed off by a Primary Care Health Clinician that confirms your fitness to fly. It is required for generally all travellers in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease.

The ‘hard copy’ certificate is dependant upon i) a healthy physical check-up (some countries do require a minimal physical examination which can include listening to the lungs or similar non-invasive procedure) and ii) a negative COVID-19 test.

For the certificate, we will need your passport names, date of birth, flight time + dates, airline/flight itinerary and destination country to book you in. Late booking fees may apply for appointments requested the next day.

Please note that you will need to check your intended airline and country COVID-19 entry requirements because they are changing continually.

If you have a health condition that may affect your heart or lungs, you may need a ‘fit to fly’ letter in order to travel. You may also need a ‘fit to fly’ certificate if you have had a recent surgery that affects the chest, abdominal area, eyes or lungs. The cabin pressure in an aeroplane can result in less oxygen in the blood and these health conditions may be made worse when you fly.

The following medical conditions and circumstances may prevent you from flying:

• Infectious diseases such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) or influenza
• COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
• Stroke
• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
• Recent surgery
• Pregnancy
• Gastroenteritis
• Other illnesses (e.g. tonsillitis, chest infection)

If you are planning to fly when pregnant, airlines may not allow you to fly if you are 36 weeks pregnant or if you are carrying twins and are in your 32nd week of pregnancy even with a ‘fit to fly’ certificate. This is because there is a risk of going into early labour or having a blood clot. Make sure to check the policy of the airline you’re flying with.

Yes, most ‘fit to fly’ certificates require a COVID-19 PCR Test. Some may only require a blood antibody test while others require a full swab PCR test used to diagnose an active infection. Be sure to check the requirements of your destination before getting assessed for testing.

Please contact us about 5 days before your intended departure. At present, some airlines and destinations require testing and certificates to be issued within 48-96 hours of departure. We advise allowing around 24-48 hours to have the swab performed and results to come back to us.

Time windows are normally given by your airline or the country you are flying to. For example, a 96 hour time window means that your swab needs to be taken within 96 hours of your flight.
Time windows (especially 72 hours) can be tight so it is important that you follow advice for the ‘fit to fly’ certification.

Your Fit to Fly certificate shows you are fit and able to fly around the time of your flight. If your health condition is long-term, you may need a new health certificate each time you fly. Some airlines and countries may specify how recent your fit to fly certificate must be, otherwise we advise discussing this with our clinic staff.

Trusted by airlines and embassies – Our direct real-time PCR (RT-PCR method) COVID-19 swab tests are fully certified and accredited by New Zealand Medical Laboratories, and this ensures that your test results will be accepted by your airline and embassy.

Different airlines have different policies for when you need a fit to fly certificate. We advise checking with your intended airline before you travel.

A positive antibody or viral test mean different things, depending on the test which you received:

Antibody Testing – A positive antibody test means your body has made antibodies to help protect against COVID-19. It may not show if you have a current infection and does not mean you have long term immunity. A positive antibody test may require a viral COVID-19 test to ensure you are not currently sick without showing significant symptoms.

Viral Testing – A positive PCR viral test often means you are an active case of COVID-19. If you test positive, be sure to follow local quarantine procedures. Do note, many countries and states will deny entry with proof of a positive COVID-19 PCR viral test in the previous 24-72 hours.
If you know or believe you have been exposed to an individual with COVID-19, follow New Zealand guidelines for ongoing management in regard to quarantine or isolation.

A negative viral or antibody test can indicate:

• You were probably NOT infected at the time your sample was collected
• Individuals in the early stages of infection may NOT show positive on the test, this means it is possible to test negative but still show symptoms even days later
• It does NOT mean you cannot or will not get infected.

If you have had a known exposure to COVID-19 and test negative, PLEASE follow local quarantine and isolation guidelines. Stay home for 14 days after your last contact with an infected individual and watch for a symptoms of COVID-19.

A small number of tests may come back as unclear or inconclusive. This simply means it was not possible to say if you had the virus when the test was done. Whilst there are a number of reasons why this might have happened, unfortunately it means you will need to be tested again.

The majority of tests for COVID-19 can be divided into polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or serologic tests. Both of these tests use different kinds of samples to search for different hallmarks of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – and neither of them are exactly perfect. There are two different forms of testing for COVID-19 and each works differently.

Viral Testing – Testing is most often done through either a nasal swab, a throat swab or a saliva sample. These are then analysed to determine if you have an active COVID-19 infection.
PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on. PCR gives us a good indication of who is infected.

Antibody Testing – Typically, an antibody test involves taking an amount of blood from the body and testing that blood for the presence of the antibodies that can develop after an infection has been detected by the body’s immune system. Antibody tests are not used to diagnose COVID-19, but to help identify if someone may have come in contact with the virus and it may have infected them. A positive antibody test may require a viral test to check for active infection.
A serologic antibody blood test tells us what proportion of the population has been infected. It won’t tell you who is infected, because the antibodies are generated after a week or two, after which time the virus should have been cleared from the system. But it tells you who’s been infected and who should be immune to the virus

COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. The World Health Organization (WHO) first learned of this new virus on 31 December 2019, following a report of a cluster of cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China.

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are:

• Fever
• Fatigue, and
• Dry cough

There are other, less common, symptoms that may affect people including:

•  Headache
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Diarrhoea
• Conjunctivitis (Inflammation or infection of the eyeball and the inner eyelid)
• Nasal Congestion
• Loss of smell
• Loss of taste
• Sore throat
• Muscle or joint pain,
• Skin rashes,
• Chills or dizziness.

Symptoms of severe COVID‐19 disease include: Shortness of breath, Loss of appetite, Confusion, Persistent pain or pressure in the chest, High temperature (above 38 °C).

Other less common symptoms are: Irritability, Confusion, Reduced consciousness (sometimes associated with seizures), Anxiety, Depression, Sleep disorders, More severe and rare neurological complications such as strokes, brain inflammation, delirium and nerve damage.

If you have COVID-19 symptoms you should follow the advice of the NZ Ministry of Health Guidelines. Airlines have the right to refuse travel to anyone they believe is not fit to fly so if staff suspect you have symptoms such as a fever or new persistent cough you may be turned away.

Current evidence suggests that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs primarily between people through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through infected secretions such as saliva and respiratory secretions, or through their respiratory droplets, which are expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or sings. A person who is positive can transmit the disease up to 48hrs before they even have symptoms. COVID-19 can also be picked up from surfaces contaminated by a person with the infection.

There are currently available either nasopharyngeal (nose inserted swab to test for virus at the back of the nose and throat, and considered the most effective way to diagnose the disease), laryngeal swab (Mouth inserted swab to test for virus at the back of the throat) and a blood test to check either recent or past exposure to the virus.

Antibody tests can tell us whether someone has had an infection in the past, even if they have not had symptoms. Also known as serological tests and usually done on a blood sample, these tests detect antibodies produced in response to an infection. In most people, antibodies start to develop days to weeks after an infection and can indicate exposure to the disease.

The swab-taking can sometimes be a little uncomfortable because it is important that the appropriate areas are swabbed in order to maximise the accuracy of the test.

Yes. There are three COVID-19 vaccines for which certain national regulatory authorities have authorized the use. Large studies of potential and approved vaccine candidates efficacy and safety results, including these three (from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca ), have been publicly reported through press releases but only one (AstraZeneca) has published results in the peer reviewed literature. There are many potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in development. It is likely that additional candidates will be submitted to regulatory authorities for approval.

If your COVID-19 PCR test is positive, please follow the national New Zealand Ministry of Health Guidelines. You and your household will need to isolate and cancel your travel. Phone your doctor but DO NOT visit a health centre such as a hospital, Clinic, GP surgery or Pharmacy unless instructed.

Flysafe fit to fly services are provided by Worldwise Travel Health Clinics, protecting travellers for over 20 years. For more information about us and our team, please visit our website.

We have 9 clinics throughout New Zealand – all run by travel health specialists who are passionate about travel. View our clinic locations