CSMIA Becomes the First Indian Airport to Achieve ACI Health Accreditation
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has again proved its mettle by achieving accreditation under the Airports Council International (ACI) Health Accreditation Programme.
After achieving accreditation in 2020, becoming India’s first airport to achieve the accredited status, CSMIA continued to demonstrate its commitment to prioritizing health and safety practices in a measurable and established manner to passengers, government and regulators.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the past year and more has propelled businesses to step up their health and safety infrastructure. With an aim to meet the demands of a more safe and secure airport experience for the passengers, CSMIA, throughout the course of the pandemic, ensured a robust health and safety mechanism was put in place. The safety measures taken at the airport have been carefully curated in line with the state and central government mandates with a strict adherence to the health and safety regulations as necessitated by the authorities. Meanwhile, prominent international aviation bodies have also put in place recommendations for the healthy upkeep of airport operations.
The Airport Health Accreditation (AHA) Programme, launched by ACI in July 2020, assesses new health measures and procedures adopted by airports because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Council Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) recommendations, the program assesses procedures like cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing, staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications and passenger facilities. In this light, the re-accreditation stands as a testament to the sustained efforts at CSMIA to maintain the industry best practices.
The safety initiatives put in place at CSMIA touched upon all possible aspects of the safety measures necessary under the prevailing circumstances. From stringent screening, social distancing, mandatory compliance with wearing PPEs and required gear, sanitization and disinfection processes were carefully put in place and strictly followed at the airport premise.
Simultaneously, CSMIA incorporated technology as a key component of the safety measures. The contactless experience throughout the airport through self-check-in kiosks, e-boarding passes, promoted the remote model of functioning at the airport.
The installation of glass partitions on all counters, strategic placement of hand sanitizers at all touchpoints, sanitization of cabs across the airports, were a few more measures maintained throughout this period.
