Cochin International Airport(CIAL) has already commissioned Insuide to assist them in Digitally managing the entire COVID-19 related Social Distancing and Emergency Response Management using WiseFly. The solution is already deployed with tweaks in progress as on date.
Airports have strict norms to ensure social distancing when they resume services and WiseFly has integrated a unique feature to ensure Airports can achieve this. On the Mobile App travellers will be alerted and Airports monitor live dashboards to track users in the terminal.
Travelers can leverage all the Wise Fly features to ensure enhanced Airport and travel experience, even during this Pandemic situation while adhering to stringent ‘social distancing’ norms to be safe.
Wednesday 6 May 2020 Meeting started at 9.33am, ended 12.00pm at Parliament
Witness(es): Simon Calder; Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive, ABTA – The Travel Association
Witness(es): John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive, Heathrow Airport Limited; Tim Alderslade, Chief Executive, Airlines UK; Deborah Bowen Rees, Vice Chair, Regional and Business Airport Group and Karen Dee, Chief Executive, Airport Operators Association
Witness: Tim Alderslade, Chief Executive, Airlines UK
This video is about the Asian Aviation Magazine In Conversation video series with Matt Driskill, editor of Asian Aviation Magazine and the Director General of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, Subhas Menon, on the aviation world in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the air transport industry, requiring a new approach to how the industry operates as it emerges from this crisis. This will establish a new normal where operational cost efficiencies, health as a key element of a safe and secure journey and ensuring long-term sustainability will be fundamental to the industry’s recovery and resurgence.
To support this recovery requires the right mix of technology, trust and collaboration between industry players and rethinking the processes that underpin travel.
Curtis Tate USA TODAYPublished 6:00 PM EDT May 3, 2020
Starting Monday, passengers who fly into Vienna International Airport can get a coronavirus test. If they test negative, they can skip the required 14-day quarantine.
The coronavirus test takes three hours to process. There’s one catch: It costs 190 euros, or more than $200.
According to the airport’s website, people who test positive will be notified immediately by phone. The result will also be reported to public health authorities.
The tests are only given to people who are showing no symptoms or who have not come in contact with a potentially infected person.
Further, Austria is only admitting people who are European citizens into the country, with limited exceptions for diplomatic personnel, and seasonal, humanitarian and health care workers.
Participants obey social distancing rules during a demonstration against the measures of the Austrian government in Vienna on May 1, 2020. The Austrian government has moved to restrict freedom of movement for people, in an effort to slow the onset of the COVID-19 coronavirus.Ronald Zak, AP
Before, the only other way to skip the quarantine was to present a medical certificate, no more than four days old, showing a negative test result.
The medical certificate must be in German or English.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Austria has 15,597 coronavirus cases and 598 deaths. In comparison, 18,925 people have died in New York City.Published 6:00 PM EDT May 3, 2020
Australia will consider lowering their restrictions next Friday. PM Scott Morrison stressed the importance of the COVIDsafe data gathering app to their plans. Video / AP news.com.au
They could be our ticket to travel freedom, and the key for cities to revive struggling economies.
More and more destinations are flagging the potential introduction of health passports that would ensure tourists are virus-free when border lockdowns lift and travelling resumes.
The travel documents would be used in tandem with existing passports to prove tourists and other travellers aren’t bringing the virus with them.
Measures include marked areas to ensure social distancing, provision of hand sanitisers, thermal screening of passengers and disinfection of baggage carts/trolleys
Coronavirus Lockdown: The government has extended the lockdown to May 17
New Delhi:
Delhi Airport has released a comprehensive list of guidelines and SOPs (standard operating procedures) for passengers and staff in anticipation of flight operations being restarted after the coronavirus lockdown is lifted. Flight operations will initially only be allowed in Terminal 3, an airport official told news agency PTI on Sunday.
The measures, meant to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus, include marked areas outside and inside terminals and airport buses to ensure social distancing, widespread provision of hand sanitisers, thermal screening of all passengers and thorough disinfection of baggage carts/trolleys.
In addition, all passenger baggage will be passed through UV disinfection tunnels at both point of departure and arrival.
All flight operations, domestic and international, have been suspended from March due to the lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the virus. The lockdown, which had been scheduled to end today, has been extended by two weeks, the Union Home Ministry said earlier this week.
On Saturday the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) issued a circular extending ban on flights till May 17 – the scheduled end of the third phase of the lockdown.
Once flights are allowed to resume, an important change for passengers is the move from the “all gates, all airlines” system practiced pre-lockdown (under which passengers could enter terminals from any gate) to “allocation of gates by airlines to distribute passenger load in (the) forecourt”.
Under the revised system each airline is allocated a certain number of check-in rows and entry gates, and passengers for one airline will not be allowed to use facilities designated for another.
Check-in counters and other areas will be marked to ensure social distancing
Under the revised rules, domestic airlines will operate from check-in rows A to H and entry gates 1 to 5. International flights will operate from check-in rows J, K, L and M and entry gates 6, 7 and 8.
Visitors entry into all terminals will be prohibited.
In two detailed flowcharts the document, titled “Delhi Airport COVID-19 Exit Plan, also identifies several possible “touchpoints”, i.e., points where passengers and/or staff may have contact with other people or with surfaces on which active strains of the COVID-19 virus may be lingering.
These include baggage carts/trolleys, check-in/baggage drop counters, security check zones, stores and kiosks in the departure lounge, and departure gates.
Similarly, on arrival there are a number of “touchpoints”, such as the baggage belt (and waiting area), baggage carts/trolleys and arrival areas outside the terminal from where cabs and other public transportation may be accessed.
SOP is also being worked out with cab providers for disinfection of cabs before use at the airport, the document adds, while similar SOP for metro and other modes of transportation will be initiated.
The document, which repeatedly mentions the need for social distancing and highlights pre-planned seating arrangements in all areas, also has “strict and stringent SOP for F&B, lounges, retail and all other non-aero areas”.
It also encourages the use of contactless payment to avail of all facilities at the airport.
While these measures are specific to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, similar guidelines and SOPs are likely to be enforced at all airports in the country.
Across India nearly 40,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported with 1,301 deaths linked to the virus. As per Union Health Ministry data this morning, the country saw its biggest single-day spike in the number of new cases and deaths, with 2,644 cases and 83 deaths reported.
Measures include marked areas to ensure social distancing, provision of hand sanitisers, thermal screening of passengers and disinfection of baggage carts/trolleys
Coronavirus Lockdown: The government has extended the lockdown to May 17
New Delhi:
Delhi Airport has released a comprehensive list of guidelines and SOPs (standard operating procedures) for passengers and staff in anticipation of flight operations being restarted after the coronavirus lockdown is lifted. Flight operations will initially only be allowed in Terminal 3, an airport official told news agency PTI on Sunday.
The measures, meant to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus, include marked areas outside and inside terminals and airport buses to ensure social distancing, widespread provision of hand sanitisers, thermal screening of all passengers and thorough disinfection of baggage carts/trolleys.
In addition, all passenger baggage will be passed through UV disinfection tunnels at both point of departure and arrival.
All flight operations, domestic and international, have been suspended from March due to the lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the virus. The lockdown, which had been scheduled to end today, has been extended by two weeks, the Union Home Ministry said earlier this week.
On Saturday the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) issued a circular extending ban on flights till May 17 – the scheduled end of the third phase of the lockdown.
Once flights are allowed to resume, an important change for passengers is the move from the “all gates, all airlines” system practiced pre-lockdown (under which passengers could enter terminals from any gate) to “allocation of gates by airlines to distribute passenger load in (the) forecourt”.
Under the revised system each airline is allocated a certain number of check-in rows and entry gates, and passengers for one airline will not be allowed to use facilities designated for another.
Check-in counters and other areas will be marked to ensure social distancing
Under the revised rules, domestic airlines will operate from check-in rows A to H and entry gates 1 to 5. International flights will operate from check-in rows J, K, L and M and entry gates 6, 7 and 8.
Visitors entry into all terminals will be prohibited.
In two detailed flowcharts the document, titled “Delhi Airport COVID-19 Exit Plan, also identifies several possible “touchpoints”, i.e., points where passengers and/or staff may have contact with other people or with surfaces on which active strains of the COVID-19 virus may be lingering.
These include baggage carts/trolleys, check-in/baggage drop counters, security check zones, stores and kiosks in the departure lounge, and departure gates.
Similarly, on arrival there are a number of “touchpoints”, such as the baggage belt (and waiting area), baggage carts/trolleys and arrival areas outside the terminal from where cabs and other public transportation may be accessed.
SOP is also being worked out with cab providers for disinfection of cabs before use at the airport, the document adds, while similar SOP for metro and other modes of transportation will be initiated.
The document, which repeatedly mentions the need for social distancing and highlights pre-planned seating arrangements in all areas, also has “strict and stringent SOP for F&B, lounges, retail and all other non-aero areas”.
It also encourages the use of contactless payment to avail of all facilities at the airport.
While these measures are specific to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, similar guidelines and SOPs are likely to be enforced at all airports in the country.
Across India nearly 40,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported with 1,301 deaths linked to the virus. As per Union Health Ministry data this morning, the country saw its biggest single-day spike in the number of new cases and deaths, with 2,644 cases and 83 deaths reported.
Image caption Heathrow Terminal 2 before the lockdown
Introducing social distancing at airports is “physically impossible”, the boss of Heathrow has warned.
“Social distancing does not work in any form of public transport, let alone aviation,” John Holland-Kaye said.
But the chief executive of Europe’s busiest airport said airports will have to introduce health-screening and passengers will have to wear masks.
However, the GMB union said the airport must enforce social-distancing to protect staff and passengers.
The union said workers fear contracting the coronavirus from passengers returning from countries where Covid-19 is prevalent. In the past two weeks three GMB members working at Heathrow have lost their lives to the coronavirus.
‘Screening’
In an interview with the Press Association news agency, Mr Holland-Kaye said: “It’s just physically impossible to socially distance with any volume of passengers in an airport.”
He said a “better solution” is needed to make air travel safe. “The constraint is not about how many people you can fit on a plane, it will be how many people you can get through an airport safely.”
In a separate interview, with the BBC, Mr Holland-Kaye said that until a coronavirus vaccine could be developed, airports would have to introduce measures to minimise infection once lockdowns started to ease.
“This might include some kind of health screening as you come into the terminal so that if you have a high temperature, you may not be allowed to fly,” he said.
“As you go through the airport, you will probably be wearing a face mask, as people from Asia have been doing ever since Sars (virus) came out.”
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary backed the call for temperature checks. “Anybody with a temperature of over 38 degrees will be refused entry,” he told the BBC.
Meanwhile, EasyJet has suggested it could leave the middle seats on its planes empty when flights resume.
Enforcing distancing
The GMB has called for urgent action to protect Heathrow airport workers after an over-crowding incident this week. On Tuesday, two flights arrived at the same time from the same country, the union reported.
It said Heathrow allocated just one conveyor belt for up to 500 passengers waiting to collect their bags.
“No social-distancing was enforced in what was a very crowded area,” said Trevlyn McLeod, GMB London region organiser. “These are not safe conditions for passengers and they are not safe working conditions for our members.
“Enforcing social-distancing is essential if our members and airport passengers are to feel that their lives are more important than money,” he said.
Published: 18:05 BST, 1 May 2020 | Updated: 18:21 BST, 1 May 2020
Hong Kong International Airport has started trialling a disinfection booth which it claims is able to kill all microbes, including coronavirus, in 40 seconds.
The airport is the first place in the world to use the CLeanTech sanitation pods which are currently being utilised by key workers such as public health staff.
The interior surface of the cubicle is coated with an antimicrobial material which kills any viruses and bacteria and bacteria on humans, it is claimed.
Hong Kong International Airport has started trialling a disinfection booth which it claims is able to kill all microbes on human skin — including coronavirus
The airport is the first place in the world to use the CLeanTech sanitation pods and they are currently being utilised by key workers such as public health staff
The airport describes the facility as ‘a full-body disinfection channel facility’.
Individuals have their temperature checked before entering in order to spot a fever, a key warning sign of COVID-19.
After stepping inside the enclosed booth, the disinfection and sanitation procedures begin, taking around 40 seconds from start to finish.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the airport said: ‘The interior surface of the channel is equipped with antimicrobial coating which can remotely kill virus and bacteria on human bodies and clothing by using the technologies of photocatalyst and “nano needles”. Sanitising spray is also applied for instant disinfection.’
The tunnels are one of several measures being trialled by the airport to keep it free of the contagion.
