Guidelines for a Healthy Passenger Experience at Airports

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is causing everyone to revisit the global norms that have been the backdrop for business and travel for the last century. Coupled with socio-demographic shifts, emerging technologies, and political and economic uncertainty, COVID-19 has changed the entire aviation industry with an increased concern for the health and wellbeing of passengers and staff now taking centre stage.

As a result, we now find ourselves increasingly working together with a range of authorities, airport operators and carriers to navigate the short- and long-term challenges the pandemic has had on national and international mobility.

Beyond the operational challenges imposed by the pandemic, the ‘passenger experience’ will see a profound shift in the way people use and enjoy airport facilities and services. With physical distancing and extreme sanitary measures and procedures being reduced, hopefully in the short-medium term, airports and operators must now be exploring the long-term commitments required by the entire air travel industry to help reduce the impact of any future pandemics.

To achieve this, a wide range of sustainable and phased improvement plans will be required for facilities and services, where Guidelines such as this, together with the lessons-learned from these difficult days, will play a key role in driving planning and actions.

With a slow-down in traffic, airports now need to take this opportunity to boost innovation and upgrade their facilities and services. New technologies will play a key role in creating future operations that are not only economically sustainable, but also environmentally sustainable. Resilience and flexibility will be the new watchwords as airports seek to adjust to this unpredictable future and avoid a complete lockdown ever again.

Moving forward, a deeper collaboration between airport operators and industry stakeholders will be crucial in designing operations that meet the even more complex needs of passengers and carriers. whilst airports continuously strive to create a positive passenger experience. Only working together will we provide a successful healthy, safe environment and fully restore confidence in air travel.

In a step in the right direction, One Works was pleased to be able to support ACI Europe for the development of Guidelines for a Healthy Passenger Experience to complement and fully align with the recent joint EASA & ECDC official Guidance joint COVID-19 Aviation Health Safety Protocol. This comprehensive document aims to detail and provide further technical guidance to airports as they restart operations based on a “new normal”. These Guidelines build on the structure of the Guidelines for Passenger Services at European Airports and provide additional recommendations to guarantee the health and safety of passengers and staff. A specific section also refers to the technology applied to support those measures.

Visit the ACI Europe website to find out more about the Guidelines for a Healthy Passenger Experience.

Or download directly from here.