Following Social Distancing at Airports is “Impossible” says the Boss of Heathrow

A prominent head of London’s Heathrow Airport has warned that implementing and following the norms of “Social distancing” is practically impossible at the airports.

John-Holland Kaye the boss of Heathrow reinstated his claim stating that “Social distancing does not work in any form of public transport, let alone aviation.”

But the chief operating officer of Europe’s busiest international airport said airports will have to initiate health screening and passengers would have to wear masks. However, the GMB Union stated that the airport must impose compulsory social distancing measures to protect employees and passengers.

The union stated that workers are afraid of contracting the coronavirus from passengers returning from the countries where Covid-19 is prevalent. In the last two weeks, three GMB staff working at The Heathrow Airport have lost their lives to the deadly virus.

The importance of health screening

In a recent interview with the Press Association news agency, Mr Holland-Kaye said: “It’s just physically impossible to socially distance with any volume of passengers in an airport.”

He also stressed on the fact that a “better solution” is required to keep the air travel sound and safe. “The constraint is not about how many people you can fit on a plane; it will be how many people you can get through an airport safely.”

In a separate interview with the BBC, Mr Holland-Kaye said that once lockdowns have begun to ease, airports would have to introduce measures to minimize infection until a coronavirus vaccine can be developed.

“This might include some kind of health screening as you come into the terminal so that if you have a high temperature, you may not be allowed to fly,” Mr Holland-Kaye said.

“As you go through the airport, you will probably be wearing a face mask, as people from Asia have been doing ever since the outbreak of the SARS epidemic.” He added further.

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary also endorsed the call for the mandatory temperature checks at the airport. “Anybody with a temperature of over 38 degrees will be refused entry,” he stressed to the BBC.

While, as flights resume, EasyJet indicated that it might leave the middle seats on its planes vacant.

Social distancing must be enforced

The GMB has pushed for swift efforts to protect the airport staff at Heathrow after this week’s overcrowding incident. Two planes arrived from the same country simultaneously on Tuesday, the union announced. Heathrow had earlier said it reserved only one conveyor belt for up to 500 passengers waiting to pick up their luggage.

“No social-distancing was enforced in what was a very crowded area,” said Trevlyn McLeod, the region organiser of GMB London. “These are not safe conditions for passengers and they are not safe working conditions for our members.

“Enforcing social-distancing is essential if our members and airport passengers are to feel that their lives are more important than money,” he said.

It is learnt that social distancing is very tough to follow especially in places like the airports, the large swarm of people and the frequent arrival of flights can put even the best systems to test. However, these measures from the Heathrow Airport management to protect their staff from contracting the virus serves as a good example for other major airports of the world to take into account and follow.