Published: 21 July 2020
It wasn’t long ago that airports were diverse and lively businesses. From packed check-in desks, to well-stocked retail concessions and queues at the departure gates.
As the world was hit by COVID-19, airline travel reduced dramatically almost overnight with international routes not expected to fully reopen for at least another 12 months. The progression and recovery for airports from COVID-19 will occur in stages.
Airports and airlines have a joint mission to reignite international travel and restore passenger confidence – encouraging them back to travel and making them safe.
This will require changes to the physical layout of the airport and aircraft, as well as the operational processes of booking and checking in, of navigating through screening and security.
Depending on airport specifics, some industry experts have calculated that between 70 and 100 different areas in the passenger journey are expected to either change or be introduced from scratch, to restore confidence in flying.
Aurecon has modelled a gradual, flexible and incremental evolution of the eventual reopening of international travel in the Australian airport context. This includes the setting up of systems and processes to keep passengers and staff safe.
There is an opportunity to bring a completely new experience to the passenger and become an airport that reshapes its post COVID-19 business as user-centric.
Watch the video below or download the white paper.
The progression and recovery for airports from COVID-19 will occur in stages. This white paper is focused on Stages 2, 3 and 4 in Figure 1, outlining recommendations for reform of the aviation sector in the following sections:
Figure 1: the stages of transition through and out of COVID-19
Key points
Airports will need strategies for their layout and operations to transition through the staged reopening of international travel.
‘New normal’ for Australian airports is the introduction of measures that make passengers feel comfortable and safe. That airports can provide assurity to governments that passengers can be detected and traced, and that the health and control systems can cope.
Key points
We need to plot a robust recovery and reform pathway to reignite international travel.
From an airport asset perspective, planning these changes needs to start now.
Figure 2: airport considerations to handle increased health screening
Key points
Insights in our white paper provide a layered approach of ideas for airports and airlines to safeguard public health, while offering a practical approach for a gradual restarting of operations.
This is key to restoring passenger confidence so that the benefits of safely reigniting international travel can be realised.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how interconnected the world is and how susceptible we are to disruption on a global scale.
Deliberate, yet urgent decision-making will position airports to transition out of COVID-19 and into the ‘new normal’ stage. This will take collaboration between airports, airlines, industry and governments to reignite international travel and open Australian airports. We hope it will be a long-term trend that benefits passengers and the whole industry.
Brett Reiss, Aviation Industry Leader, leads Aurecon’s Australia & New Zealand aviation team where he specialises in the management and development of privatised airports. Brett has led the master planning of numerous Australia airports, and has undertaken extensive land use, airfield and terminal planning exercises for airports in Australia and New Zealand. Brett was previously General Manager Commercial Services for Northern Territory Airports.
Erik Kriel, Aviation Capability Leader at Aurecon, has more than two decades of experience as an airport development planner and strategist, including terminal design, airport master planning, concept designs, capital expenditure planning and airline consultation. He has led consultancy teams in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Previously, Erik headed Airport Planning for the Airports Company South Africa. He has worked at some of the largest hub airports in the world, including Dubai and Hong Kong as well as some of the most economically sensitive such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Prior to his current role at Aurecon where he manages the company’s technical aviation capability across Australia & New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East, he was Aviation Lead Consultant on several Australian airport planning projects.
This paper is part of a collection of insights and expertise from Aurecon as it explores leading through and beyond the COVID-19 disruption. Explore our insights here.
Copyright 2021 Aurecon Group Pty. Ltd.
