Friday 26 June 2020

Dear AOA Member,

I am delighted to announce that AOA in collaboration with our Gold Member STARR Insurance Companies is holding a webcast on: Covid-19 Road to Recovery on Wednesday 8 July at 11 am. It will be an opportunity to discuss how you can better manage and mitigate risks with your business units, and introduce new operational and wellbeing measures as we now enter the restart and recovery phase at our airports. This webcast is for all members but it would be of particular interest to those who are working in Operations, Health and Safety and HR. If you require further information and wish to register your interest please email Tania Roca.

In a sign of the merits of moving to a more risk-based approach on border health measures, ACI EUROPE, our European sister association, has reported that the EU will be lifting the blanket ban on non-essential travel into the EU from the 1 July. The ban will be replaced by a more targeted approach with a clear criteria used to assess whether a third country has a lower or equivalent epidemiological situation vis-à-vis the European Union. Initially the list of countries reaching this criteria is thought to reach 24, with the United States, Brazil and Turkey being notably absent. The list was due to be decided upon today. As for the UK, we expect an announcement on which countries will be included within the Government’s “International Travel Corridor” system over the weekend, with detail expected from the Transport Secretary in Parliament on Monday. We will keep you posted, but fingers crossed this represents a good result from our lobbying and a positive step forward in starting the recovery for UK airports.

Finally, it is worth noting that AOA members from the supply-side of the aviation industry have been working diligently to develop new and innovative solutions for some of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis.  We have compiled a list of these solutions here and contact details are available for further information. If you want to list a product or service please get in touch at [email protected]

Other items of note:

• The DfT has updated a Public Health England COVID-19 FAQs for airports. This is based on interpretation of national COVID-19 guidance and questions asked at weekly airport meetings to the port health team. In a call yesterday, officials were keen to stress that the FAQs were due to be further updated in light of shifting Government guidance on social distancing.

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

Karen Dee
Chief Executive