Biosecurity measures to boost air travel

The much anticipated biosecurity measures to boost recovery of air transport have been announced by airline industry body International Air Transport Association, and Airports Council International.

Described as a ‘living document’ Safely Restarting Aviation ACI and IATA Joint Approach it provides a roadmap for governments and regulators with the aim of resuming operations around the world.

In order to work, the measures proposed need formal adoption and implementation on a worldwide basis. 

The organisations state that ‘there is currently no single measure that could mitigate all the risks of restarting air travel. However, we believe that an effective implementation on an outcome based and layered approach, of the above- mentioned range of measures that are already possible, represents the most effective way of balancing risk mitigation with the need to unlock economies and to enable travel in the immediate term.’
The following list has been created in the document and guidelines recommended by IATA and ACI.

Safely Restarting Aviation ACI and IATA Joint Approach

Preflight
When booking, passengers will need to enter advanced information electronically submitted through eVisa and electronic travel authorisation platforms. Internet portals will need to be set up by states to collect. Technology should allow for a wide range of devices - computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones etc.

Airport terminal
Inside the airport, the terminal area should be restricted to workers, passengers and persons to support those with disabilities or unaccompanied minors.

Temperature checks/screening
Checks on passengers’ temperatures could be adopted, although these are more for reassuring the travelling public according to the organisations: ‘They have not proved to be 100% effective in delaying or mitigating a pandemic due to the low sensitivity of the systems used to detect mildly symptomatic infections and their inability to detect cases during the incubation period (false negatives).’
If implemented, checks need to be done by professional medical staff and early on in the passenger process, and ‘Under conditions which minimize impact on operations at the airport and the passenger experience – in particular as regards passenger throughput across key terminal processes.’

Social/physical distancing
These measures should comply with the same local rules and regulations for other transport modes, and limited to the initial restart phase, ‘as they are incompatible with the restoration and development of air connectivity over-time given their limiting factor on airport capacity and aircraft capacity.’

Personal Protective Equipment
To be worn by passengers including face coverings and masks, and gloves both within airport terminals and onboard the aircraft.

Cleaning and disinfection
This should be carried out in airport terminals, infrastructure and all equipment on a regular basis.

COVID19 testing
This is not advised at present until more reliable, testing is available. Antibody tests are superfluous. Moreover, antibodies tests are of no use when it comes to travel and effective containment. Testing as currently performed is not a viable solution in an airport environment. However, if medical testing reliability improves, this is a measure which could be incorporated into the passenger process removing extra measures upstream. 

Immunity passports could play a role in the future but at present they are not recommended as there is currently no confirmed evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection. 

Check-in should be done prior to arriving at the departure airport at home or in the office using printed boarding passes or electronic home printed bag tags.

All touchpoint in the airport should be eliminated with touches technology in self-service options such as self bag drop.

The boarding process will need to be more orderly to limit physical contact with the need to redisng gate areas and increased use of automation such as self scanning and biometrics.arry on baggage should be limited to enable a smooth boarding process.

Inflight
Studies undertaken indicate ‘very low’ transmission between passengers. Barriers to transmission as customers sit facing forward and not toward each other, seatbacks providing a barrier, the use of HEPA filters and the direction of the air flow on board (from ceiling to floor), and the limited movement onboard aircraft once seated add to the onboard protection. As an added protection against possible in-flight transmission, IATA recommends the use of face coverings by travelers in situations where physical distancing cannot be maintained, including in flight. In this regard, it should not be assumed that physical distancing on board (e.g. through blocked seats) would be necessary. 

For food and beverage onboard there should be a simplified service and pre- packaged catering. 
For added passenger comfort, sanitization wipes could be provided to customers to clean the spaces around them, and procedures to limit movement onboard implemented. 
Revised guidelines for aircraft cleaning have been published by IATA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and EASA. 
Arrival Airport 
Border and Customs Control 
Where declarations are required on arrival, governments should consider electronic options (mobile applications and QR codes) to minimize human-to-human contact. 
For customs formalities, where possible green/red lanes for self-declarations are recommended. Appropriate sanitary measures must be taken at secondary screening points to protect passengers and staff. 
Governments should simplify border control formalities, by enabling contactless processes (e.g. relating to the reading of passport chips, facial recognition etc.), setting up special lanes, and training their agents to detect signs of unwell passengers. 
Possible redesign of immigration halls needs to be coordinated between the airport, airlines and the government. 
Baggage collection 
All efforts need to be made to provide a speedy baggage claim process and ensure that passengers are not made to wait for excessive amounts of time in the baggage claim area. 
It will also be important that governments ensure that the customs clearance process is as speedy as possible, and that appropriate measures are taken in case of physical baggage inspections to ensure that the same health protection measures than on departure are kept. 
Transfer screening 
Security and health screening for transferring passengers should take maximum advantage of “one stop-security arrangements”. This relies on mutual recognition of screening measures at the originating airport and eliminates re-screening in the transfer process, thus eliminating a queuing point in the journey. Where this is not possible for all transfer traffic, consideration should be given to specific arrangements among trusted partners. 
Where transfer security screening is required, it should follow appropriate sanitary requirements as previously described in the departure process. 
Where health screening measures may be required the recommendations for the arrival process should be followed. 
Measures such as effective COVID-19 testing and immunity may be added to these guidelines. New measures can be incorporated into the passenger process to further mitigate the risks and further build confidence in air travel, towards a resumption of ‘normal’ operations.