New Airport Health Accreditation Aims To Ease Pandemic Fears With International Travelers

The ACI Airport Health Accreditation (AHA) program provides airports with an assessment of how aligned their health measures are with the ACI Aviation Business Restart and Recovery guidelines and ICAO Council Aviation Restart Task Force recommendations along with industry best practices. The program is open to all ACI member airports of all sizes in all regions.

ACI Airport Health Accreditation:

• Enables airports to demonstrate to passengers, staff, regulators, and governments that they are prioritizing health and safety in a measurable, established manner.
• Enables airports to validate their own measures throughout their facilities and processes.
• Reassures the traveling public using the airport’s facilities.
• Promotes the recognition of professional excellence in maintaining safe hygienic facilities.
• Promotes best practices and aligns efforts across the industry
• Ensures harmonization between ICAO global guidance and industry implementation.

Accreditation is voluntary with a request to join the program initiated by the airport.

The Process:
The Accreditation is based on guidance from the ICAO CART Take-Off document and ACI Recovery and Restart Best Practices which supplement the CART approach. They are consistent with CAPSCA recommendations for states, taking an airport centric approach to common requirements.

Topics include cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing (where feasible and practical), staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications and passenger facilities.

All passenger areas and processes are considered including terminal access, check-in areas, security screening, boarding gates, lounges, retail, food and beverages, gate equipment such as boarding bridges, escalators and elevators, border control areas and facilities (in collaboration with authorities), baggage claim area, and arrivals exit.

More at the Airports Council International website