Heathrow boss calls for common international standard of health screening to be used at all airports to help air travel recover from coronavirus pandemic
- John Holland-Kaye wants all airports to use the same health screening system
- He believes it would help people travel with confidence after the pandemic
- The boss also claimed standard screening could help boost the British economy
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Governments across the world should agree a common standard on medical screening at airports, the boss of Heathrow has said.
Chief executive John Holland-Kaye claimed a single system for assessing passengers’ health will help people travel with confidence when the coronavirus crisis recedes and increase the demand for air travel.
He said the measures would be an important boost to Britain’s economy.
Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye is calling for governments across the world to adopt the same standard of health screening at airports
The Heathrow chief executive said the measures would help people feel more confident travelling when the coronavirus crisis recedes and could help boost the British economy. Heathrow was empty during the normally busy Easter weekend
Mr Holland-Kaye said: ‘Heathrow continues to serve the nation by keeping vital supply lines open and helping people get home.
‘Now is the time to agree a common international standard for healthcare screening in airports so that when this crisis recedes people can travel with confidence and we can get the British economy moving again.’
Tourists have lambasted the ‘shocking’ lack of testing upon arriving back in the UK during the pandemic.
Some passengers told Press Association other countries appeared to be taking Covid-19 much more seriously with medical questionnaires and health checks at land borders and travel terminals.
In the first few weeks of March, at the beginning of the crisis, holidaymakers were arriving back to the UK from countries affected by the pandemic and complained they weren’t checked when they landed.
Subsequently, leading scientist Neil Ferguson admitted on the Andrew Marr show on April 5 that airport officials only stopped and isolated a third of Britons returning to the UK with coronavirus.
Heathrow announced that passenger numbers for March fell by 52 per cent compared with the same month in 2019.
Many of the 3.1 million journeys were repatriations as people flew to and from the west London hub to reach their homes.
Professor Neil Ferguson said more than two thirds of Britons who had returned to airports from countries affected by coronavirus were missed and were not forced to isolate
The airport warned it expects passenger numbers for the whole of April to be down by more than 90 per cent year-on-year with ‘lasting and significant industry-wide effects predicted’.
The collapse in demand saw the airport move to single runway operations on April 6 and two terminals will be closed in the coming weeks.
These measures will ‘protect long-term jobs’ by reducing operating costs and help Heathrow ‘remain financially resilient’, the airport added.
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air announced a sweeping round of redundancies which will hit almost a fifth of its workforce.
Wizz Airlines announced redundancies, which will affect a fifth of its workforce, because it is only running three per cent of its capacity. (Picture: Stock)
Around 1,000 people will lose their jobs and pilots, cabin crew and office staff will have a 14 per cent pay cut.
The airline said it made the decision because it is now only operating three per cent of its pre-coronavirus capacity.
Most of its employees are not based in the UK.