(Reuters) - Air Canada (NYSE: AC) said on Wednesday it was working with Spartan Bioscience Inc to assess using the Ottawa-based biotechnology company's portable COVID-19 testing technology in the aviation sector.

Spartan has been developing a proprietary swab for collecting DNA samples for its COVID-19 test, but the use of its test cartridge and the portable DNA analyzer device is subject to Canada's healthcare regulator's approval, Air Canada said.

The country's largest carrier would work with Spartan "in the weeks and months ahead" before an accurate, portable molecular test for COVID-19 is made available, the company said.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Vinay Dwivedi)