The International Council of Airports in Europe (“ACI Europe”) warns of the risks that travelers will have to spend long hours at European airports in the summer due to Covid-19 inspections.
Given the existing and forthcoming easing of travel restrictions, both inside and outside Europe due to the improving epidemiological situation, European airports are looking forward to the moment when people will resume travel. Passenger traffic is expected to almost triple, from 47 million passengers this month to 125 million in August.
Although this figure will still not be close to the level of travel before the pandemic in 2019, managing such an increase in passenger traffic will cause unprecedented operational difficulties for airports due to various factors, explains ACI Europe.
Among these factors, ACI Europe cites the limited space available at airport premises. The introduction of physical separation in all airport processes has limited the space available to people in all terminals, significantly reducing the available physical facilities and increasing passenger service time.
The current plans of the airlines also show that air traffic will be more active this summer during peak periods – it is more than last year and at some airports even more than in the summer of 2019. Peak hours are a common feature of airport operations and depend on the operating regime of airlines, so airport facilities are designed to accommodate large numbers of passengers efficiently. However, this becomes particularly difficult when capacity is reduced as a result of physical distance, and processes previously performed without interruption can no longer be performed consistently due to additional Covid-19 tests.
Passengers are now forced to carry out additional checks at the airport to check Covid-19 test certificates, passenger location forms and quarantine documents, ACI Europe reports. In addition, these checks are performed several times both on departure and arrival at the destination and are in most cases manual, resulting in inefficiencies and significant delays in passenger service.
“Airports are looking forward to the opportunity to return to life, reunite their communities and support Europe’s much-needed recovery from the current economic situation. However, the level of uncertainty and complexity surrounding the restart planning is still insurmountable. “Travelers at airports will face widespread chaos in the summer of 2007. There is an absolute and immediate need for national governments to speed up effective planning in response to a variety of challenges and to work even more closely with airports and airlines,” said Olivier Yankovec, ACI Europe’s CEO.
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