Por Sarah Young
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Digital health checks will be vital to the recovery of overseas travel, Britain’s Heathrow Airport said on Wednesday, after a COVID-19 passenger collapse led to a loss of 2 billion pounds (2.8 billion dollars) in 2020.
The UK government said on Monday that overseas travel could restart in mid-May, prompting a surge in holiday bookings.
London is also studying a digital health passport or app to help ease restrictions, while admitting that the benefits must be weighed against the potential risks to civil liberties.
But Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said digital technology and international agreements would be vital to reviving an industry that has been badly impacted by the pandemic.
“It is absolutely crucial and that is one of the main things that the government should work on,” he said when asked about a digital health app.
Currently, paper checks of COVID-19 test results and passenger locator forms take 20 minutes per person at Heathrow, making travel nearly impossible if passenger numbers rise from low levels. current.
Britain’s largest airport said it was “very likely” that people would be able to go on summer holidays, but it believes passenger numbers will be slow to recover.
The airport, west of London, expects 25 million passengers in the second half of the year, which means that it would be operating at approximately 50% of its capacity.
Heathrow, owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, Qatar Investment Authority, China Investment Corp and others, lost its title as Europe’s busiest airport to Paris last year after its flight schedules were cut more than those of your rivals.
Passenger numbers plummeted 73% to 22 million people last year, and half of those who traveled during January and February, before the pandemic shut down global travel in March.
(Reporting by Sarah Young. Edited in Spanish by Janisse Huambachano)
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