Page 8 - TMI Special 10-11 2020 FlipBookv2

INSIDER

New ACI website provides airport health measures information

directly to passengers and partners

Airports Council International (ACI) passenger assistant throughout the journey Airport Check mobile app are available on
World has launched a set of tools which by providing health measures at airports the App Store. Check & Fly will also soon
provides passengers with information about and a passenger-facing web page where be available on Google Play Store.
the health measures in place at airports passengers can look up their departure and The website of tools complements
around the world. Passengers will be able arrival airports; ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation
to see the measures they can expect when For airports: a web portal that allows program which provides an assessment
departing, arriving or transiting through the airports to make updates to their data; a of measures in accordance with ICAO
airport. mobile app, and “Airport Check” which Council Aviation Recovery Task Force
Over two hundred airports, provides statistics to airports based on the (CART) recommendations and in
representing nearly half of the world’s measures implemented globally. These alignment with the joint EASA and ECDC
air traffic, have already provided their statistics can help airports plan their Aviation Health Safety Protocol and
information. Passengers and partners can processes and measures, using industry ACI Europe’s Guidelines for a Healthy
view what facilities are available and what intelligence. Passenger Experience at Airports.
health measures are in place before they For application and web developers: “Developing and providing tools
commence their journey. an Application Programming Interface like those on the Airport Health Measures
Data is available through a mobile (API) based on the Aviation Community website, equip travelers with information
app, as an API and on a new website. The Recommended Information Services that enables them to make travel plans with
tools featured on the new website include: (ACRIS) enabling stakeholders such as confidence. This is key to the recovery of
For passengers: a mobile app called airlines and travel agents to use the data. air travel,” ACI World Director General
“Check & Fly” is designed to be a Both the Check & Fly mobile app and Luis Felipe de Oliveira said.

Aviation bodies intensify pressure to drop quarantines in favor of

region-wide passenger testing protocol in Europe and beyond

European aviation bodies have traffic to, from and within Europe is down in communities and during air travel whilst
intensified their call to replace quarantine by 66.3% year to date. Latest figures from stimulating the economy.
measures with passenger testing as a way ACI Europe reveal that as of September The framework proposed is based on
to allow cross-border travelers to plan 27, passenger traffic in the EU had further two primary principles:
family reunions or vacations during the plunged to -78%. Quarantines must be replaced by
upcoming holiday period. It will also serve New research released by the Air testing prior to departure, based on an
as a lifeline to the millions of workers in Transport Action Group (ATAG) on the EU Testing Protocol for travel which is
the travel and tourism sectors whose jobs impact of COVID-19 restrictions suggests consistently applicable for passengers
remain at risk. the collapse of air traffic could result in traveling across borders from high risk
Following their direct call to action a 52% drop in employment supported by areas in the EU/Schengen space and from
together with the wider travel and tourism aviation in Europe, equating to the loss of third countries. Public opinion research has
sectors in a letter to European Commission around 7 million jobs. Nearly €450 billion established that 65% of travelers surveyed
President von der Leyen on September 17, in economic activity will be lost. Urgent agree that quarantine should not be
aviation bodies ACI and ACI Europe, action is therefore required to prevent an required for passengers who test negative
Airlines for Europe (A4E) and IATA have even greater economic and employment for COVID-19.
submitted a framework for how an EU- catastrophe. Travel restrictions must be coordinated
wide Testing Protocol for Travel (EU-TPT) The associations reiterate their and based on common risk assessment.
could work. calls for the Commission and Member This supports the risk assessment criteria
In follow up letters sent to the States to prioritize the development and and the common color coding system
Commission President and Heads of implementation of the European Testing / mapping of designated areas already
State, as well as Health Ministers across Protocol for Travel system. proposed by the European Commission,
Europe at the beginning of October, The letter highlights the continually but which is yet to be endorsed and fully
the industry associations set out their worsening outlook for passenger demand implemented by EU States.
proposal for harmonized pre-departure along with cripplingly low forward Similar calls for harmonization and air
testing from high-risk areas, describing the bookings for the winter season – down passenger testing to replace quarantines are
current situation of patchwork quarantine -80% from 2019. The planning certainty taking place in North and South America
restrictions as “unsustainable.” and risk-based safety of a common testing as well.
Aviation industry data confirms the protocol would give European countries an
worsening situation. IATA figures show air effective way to reduce transmission both

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