IATA has again come out against the use of quarantine
measures for international travellers, saying the aviation industry will need
to adopt a “layering of temporary biosecurity measures” to provide consumer
confidence as travel restarts.
The industry body has published its proposed roadmap for
restarting aviation services in the safest way possible, which includes a
number of measures it believes should be taken before, during and after
flights, both at the airport and on board aircraft.
IATA’s director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said: “There
is no single measure that will reduce risk and enable a safe restart of flying.
But a layering of measures that are globally implemented and mutually
recognised by governments can achieve the needed outcome. This is the greatest
crisis that aviation has ever faced. A layered approach has worked with safety
and with security. It’s the way forward for biosecurity as well.”
The proposal suggests passenger data, including health
information, should be collected by governments before a flight in the same way
they gather details for e-visa or electronic travel authorisation programmes.
On arrival at the airport, IATA said terminal access should
be restricted to airport and airline workers as well as passengers, with
exemptions made only for those accompanying travellers with disabilities. It
also recommends temperature screening by trained government staff at entry
points, physical distancing throughout the entire airport journey including
queue management, the use of face coverings for passengers and masks for staff,
self-service options for check-in and bag drop to limit person-to-person
contact, congestion-reducing boarding priorities and hand luggage limitations,
and cleaning and sanitisation of high-touch areas.
In-flight measures should include face coverings for
passengers and masks for crew for the duration of the flight, simplified cabin
service and the use of pre-packaged catering to reduce contact between crew and
passengers, limiting passengers’ movements throughout the cabin by prohibiting queues
for toilets, and more frequent deep cleaning of the cabin.
At the arrival airport, IATA suggested temperature
screenings take place again, with health declarations and robust contact
tracing facilitated by governments. Furthermore, it said airports should
increase the use of automated procedures for customs and border control, such
as mobile applications and biometric technology, as well as accelerated
processing and baggage reclaim to reduce congestion and queuing.
IATA reiterated its opposition to quarantine measures,
saying the measure would be “obviated” by the layering of steps it is
proposing. It also dismissed the idea of social distancing on board aircraft
again, repeating evidence that the risk of transmission is low due to seating
lay-outs and the use of hospital-grade HEPA filters.
The roadmap was put forward in support of the Covid-19
Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) of the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO), which has been tasked with developing global standards for safe flying.
De Juniac commented: “The roadmap is the industry’s
high-level thinking on safely restarting aviation. Timing is crucial.
Governments understand the importance of aviation to the social and economic
recovery of their countries and many are planning a phased reopening of borders
in the coming months. We have a short time to reach agreement on the initial
standards to support safely reconnecting the world and to firmly establish that
global standards are essential to success. This will change as technology and
medical science advances. The vital element is coordination. If we don’t take
these first steps in a harmonised way, we will spend many painful years
recovering ground that should not have been lost.”
Read IATA’s full proposal, Biosecurity for Air Transport: A
Roadmap for Restarting Aviation, here.