ROME: Italy is to offer Europe's first coronavirus-free corridor with the United States for passengers who have tested negative for Covid-19, scrapping the obligation for new arrivals to quarantine.

Rome's Fiumicino airport said Thursday it had sealed a deal with Italian airline Alitalia and Delta Air Lines of the United States for the special flights between selected North American cities and the Italian capital from next month.

Similar corridors will also be trialed between Rome and the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt, it said. The move follows the launch in September of virus-free domestic flights between Rome and financial capital Milan.

"The new travel protocols, planned on an experimental basis on flights from the United States to Fiumicino... will be progressively offered to passengers as early as December," Fiumicino said in a statement.