Airline asks woman to take pregnancy test before boarding flight

A passenger was forced to take a pregnancy test before the airline would let her board her flight. Photo / 123rf

An airline has been slammed after asking a Japanese woman to take a pregnancy test to prove she is not pregnant before boarding a flight.

Midori Nishida was boarding a flight from Hong Kong to Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, a US island in the Pacific, to visit her parents.

But when the 25-year-old arrived at the airport, Hong Kong Express Airways told her to take a "fit-to-fly" assessment which involved a pregnancy test.

Nishida had already stated she was not pregnant on the questionnaire form, but airline officials insisted she do the test.

The pregnancy test came back negative but the incident has left her "humiliated and frustrated".

In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the airline apologised but noticed their policy was created due to immigration concerns.

Midori Nishida was boarding a flight from Hong Kong to the US Pacific island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands to visit her parents when she was asked to take the pregnancy test. Photo / Getty Images

"In response to concerns raised by authorities in Saipan, we took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure US immigration laws were not being undermined," the airline said.

"We would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been affected by this.

"We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it."

In the past decade, Northern Mariana Islands has become an increasingly popular destination for foreign women to give birth as it gives their children eligibility for US citizenship.

More tourists than residents gave birth on the Northern Mariana Islands in 2018, the Journal reported.