Navigating The New Normal

Robot cleaners, health screening and contactless technology – here’s how the coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the airport experience

- Tom Otley And Seher Asaf

As border restrictions begin to ease, airports and airlines are looking to restore confidence in travel. To use corporate speak, they are “redesigning the passenger journey”.

Before Covid-19, there was already a push for technology to help speed us through the airport – self-service check-in, for instance. Now, with the added incentive of minimising interaction between staff and passengers, that momentum has become even stronger. (Airport and airline executives talk a lot about “frictionless” travel. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has also introduced lots more friction.)

A word, first, about whether travel at such a time is a good idea at all. Some people will not return to travelling until a vaccine has been found, but most are looking for reassurance. In an IATA (International Air Transport Association) survey in July (see box overleaf ), travellers identified concerns such as queuing at check-in/ security/border control and boarding, and said Covid-19 screening at departure airports would make them feel safer.

For those potential passengers, there is a recognition within the travel industry that for confidence to return, there needs to be a consistent approach to the various protocols that have been put in place.