Airports Council Welcomes ICAO Restart Recommendations

June 1, 2020

WASHINGTON – Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), the trade association representing commercial service airports in the United States and Canada, today welcomed recommendations put forward by the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Council Aviation Recovery Task Force as air travel begins to resume following the coronavirus (COVID-19) health pandemic.

“Ensuring the health, safety, and security of the traveling public and airport workers is an airport’s top priority,” said ACI-NA President and CEO Kevin M. Burke. “Aviation is a complex global enterprise. We applaud ICAO’s swift work to identify a full range of steps that can be taken to enhance public health and support the industry’s global recovery. We thank the Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada for their proactive work in advancing this report. As the industry moves into recovery in the United States and Canada, collaboration and harmonization are essential as we take steps to rebuild the public’s confidence in air travel.”

ACI-NA has convened an Airport Industry Recovery Advisory Panel to assess the operational needs of airports in the United States and Canada, as well as considerations to ensure passenger safety and limit further spread of COVID-19. This panel will help guide discussions about how the airport industry can safely handle increasing passenger levels in their facilities, leveraging the recommendations put forward by ICAO.

North American airports responded quickly to COVID-19 by establishing enhanced health and sanitation protocols that include much more frequent cleaning, with an intense focus on reducing “touch points” in public areas and restrooms, enhancing facility cleaning and hygiene practices, increasing availability of hand sanitizers in many airport areas for passengers and employees, raising awareness about the need to ensure physical distancing, encouraging or requiring use of cloth facial coverings, and additional education and training for airport employees and contractors. Many of the practices will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

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About ACI-NA

Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) represents local, regional, and state governing bodies that own and operate commercial airports in the United States and Canada. ACI-NA member airports enplane more than 95 percent of the domestic and virtually all the international airline passenger and cargo traffic in North America. Approximately 380 aviation-related businesses are also members of ACI-NA, providing goods and services to airports. Collectively, U.S. airports support more than 11.5 million jobs and account for $1.4 trillion in economic activity – or more than seven percent of the total U.S. GDP. Canadian airports support 405,000 jobs and contribute C$35 billion to Canada’s GDP. Learn more at www.airportscouncil.org.