The impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry has been unprecedented. The Airport Council International (ACI) has reported that air travel is down by 95 percent from a year ago as a result of the travel ban and lockdowns in many countries. They have also estimated that passenger numbers for 2020 could drop by 40 percent, representing a significant decline in revenue for airlines and airports across the world. So the question is 'What can airports and airlines do to rebuild confidence in air travel?'
The social distancing measures introduced in response to the World Health Organisations' (WHO) call to reduce human interaction and limit transmission of the contagion, these seem to have worked in many countries including China, where lockdown and travel restrictions within the country are being eased to get the economy back on track.
However, what measures have some airports put in place to help rebuild trust amongst passengers and what further could be done? Global architectural practice Scott Brownrigg has been looking into this and have drawn up a research paper that explores this area.
We look at the social distancing, health screening, staff protection, public awareness, sanitation and cleansing measures being put in place by some airports and also consider alternative ways of addressing the impact of social distancing on terminal planning and operation.
We raise a number of suggestions relating to passenger flows, and have explored a number of queuing capacity reduction studies to provide alternative possible solutions for key airport areas including check-in, bag drop, passport check, security screening, boarding gates and baggage reclaim.
We offer our ideas on a number of mitigating measures and highlight the importance of modelling and simulating scenarios to predict the outcomes by creating a Digital Twin for airport operators.
