Temperature screenings and masks are to become common sights at airports to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, while physical distancing could make flying more expensive, Dubai airport chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said.
Around the world, governments, airports and airlines are considering temporary safety measures to restart air travel, including mandatory temperature checks, wearing masks and keeping passengers apart.
“We are going to have to take whatever measures are necessary to protect the traveling public and our staff,” Griffiths told reporters.
Dubai International, one of the world’s busiest airports, suspended passenger services in late March as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took drastic measures to contain the novel coronavirus.
The UAE has since allowed some repatriation flights and eased other restrictions in the Gulf state, although it is not clear when normal flights will restart.
Temporary safety measures should be expected as flights resume, but Griffiths said that physical distancing rules would eventually limit growth as demand rebounds.
“We will not be able to operate at anything close to our original design capacity if we had to maintain social distancing,” he said.
Dubai airport, the hub of airline Emirates, was handling Airbus A380s with more than 600 passengers before the virus forced the airport to halt flights.
Physical distancing could also increase airfares if airlines were restricted to selling fewer tickets to keep some seats empty, Griffiths said.
Until there is a vaccine, treatment or reliable, quick method to detect the virus, measures that reduce the risk of contagion would need to be enforced, Griffiths said.
It is unclear when global travel might recover from the pandemic, which has shattered demand and will partially depend on countries lifting their lockdowns.
Regaining public confidence in the safety of air travel is seen by the aviation industry as a significant challenge.
Countries that have the spread of the virus under control and agree to reopen their borders to each other are likely to drive air travel demand over the near term, but it is impossible to say when travel could return to pre-pandemic levels, Griffiths said.
Demand for air travel would lag behind pre-virus forecasts by about 10 percent for at least five more years, the International Air Transport Association has said.
Traffic next year would be down between one-third and two-fifths from projections made prior to the pandemic, according to the association, which does not expect travel to recover to last year’s levels until 2023 at the earliest.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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