Airports Council International (ACI) World and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have called on governments to ensure the standard operating procedures used at airports are supported by scientific evidence and are consistent across the world.
The aviation sector has been brought to a standstill and a balanced and effective restart and recovery depends on collaboration among the key participants in the global aviation ecosystem.
ACI and IATA have jointly issued a paper laying out a pathway for restarting the aviation industry – Safely Restarting Aviation – ACI and IATA Joint Approach.
Airlines and airports have cooperated to build a roadmap for resuming operations which reassures the travelling public that health and safety remain the overall priorities.
The joint approach proposes a layered approach of measures across the entire passenger journey to minimize the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at airports and onboard aircraft, and to prevent aviation becoming a meaningful source of international re-infection.
Such measures should be globally consistent and subject to continued review, improvement, and removal when no longer required, to ensure an even recovery.
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ACI and IATA are both central members the COVID-19 Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) being led by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
CART enables the collaboration – among governments and between governments and industry -that is vital to ensure the harmonization and consistency of measures that are essential to restoring air connectivity and passenger confidence in air travel.
ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said: “There is currently no single measure that could mitigate all the risks of restarting air travel but we believe a globally-consistent, outcome-based approach represents the most effective way of balancing risk mitigation with the need to unlock economies and to enable travel.”
IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said: “Safety is always our top priority and that includes public health. Restoring air connectivity is vital to restarting the global economy and reconnecting people.
"It is important to remember that the risk of transmission on board is very low. And we are determined that aviation will not be a significant source of re-infection.”
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