Controlling importation and transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from overseas travelers is essential for countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and other island nations, that have adopted a suppression strategy to manage very low community transmission. Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has emerged as a promising tool employed in public health response in many countries globally. This study aimed to establish whether the surveillance of aircraft wastewater can be used to provide an additional layer of information to augment individual clinical testing. Wastewater from 37 long-haul flights chartered to repatriate Australians was tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Children 5 years or older on these flights tested negative for coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) (deep nasal and oropharyngeal reverse-transcription (RT)-PCR swab) 48 h before departure. All passengers underwent mandatory quarantine for 14-day post arrival in Howard Springs, NT, Australia. Wastewater from 24 (64.9 %) of the 37 flights tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. During the 14 day mandatory quarantine, clinical testing identified 112 cases of COVID-19. Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in repatriation flight wastewater using pooled results from three RT-qPCR assays demonstrated a positive predictive value (PPV) of 87.5 %, a negative predictive value (NPV) of 76.9 % and 83.7% accuracy for COVID-19 cases during the post-arrival 14-day quarantine period. The study successfully demonstrates that the surveillance of wastewater from aircraft for SARS-CoV-2 can provide an additional and effective tool for informing the management of returning overseas travelers and for monitoring the importation of SARS CoV-2 and other clinically significant pathogens.

控制来自海外旅行者的严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 的输入和传播对于澳大利亚、新西兰和其他岛国等国家/地区至关重要，这些国家/地区已采取抑制策略来管理极低的社区传播. SARS-CoV-2 RNA 的废水监测已成为全球许多国家公共卫生应对措施中一种很有前途的工具。本研究旨在确定飞机废水的监测是否可用于提供额外的信息层以增强个体临床测试。对 37 架包机遣返澳大利亚人的长途航班产生的废水进行了 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 检测。这些航班上的 5 岁或 5 岁以上儿童在出发前 48 小时检测出冠状病毒病 19 (COVID-19) 呈阴性（深鼻和口咽逆转录 (RT)-PCR 拭子）。所有乘客在抵达澳大利亚北领地霍华德斯普林斯后都接受了为期 14 天的强制隔离。37 次飞行中有 24 次 (64.9%) 的废水经检测呈 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 阳性。在 14 天的强制隔离期间，临床测试发现了 112 例 COVID-19。使用三种 RT-qPCR 分析的汇总结果对遣返航班废水中的 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 进行监测表明，COVID-入境后14天检疫期间有19宗个案。