Chapter 1. Reassure
Ensuring continuity and building confidenceENSURING CONTINUITY AND BUILDING CONFIDENCE
At the same time as protecting those employees and staff responsible for essential tasks in our airports, we also adapted our passenger and aircraft handling capacity to reflect the reality of air traffic in France and worldwide throughout the year. We also sought to maintain the highest-possible quality of service for passengers and airlines and to restore confidence, through visible, effective and innovative health protection measures.
◆Alcohol-based hand sanitiser gel dispensers were located at strategic points along the airport passenger pathway (here at Paris-Charles de Gaulle).
BALANCING AGILITY WITH UNCOMPROMISING MEASURES
One of the key goals was to ensure the continuity of airport service in terms of those basic procedures essential for the proper functioning of an airport (water and energy supplies, runway safety, maintenance, security checks for passengers and their baggage, etc.). As the air traffic landscape evolved over the weeks and months, Groupe ADP had to align its facilities as closely as possible with demand by concentrating passenger traffic in a limited number of terminals, and closing/reopening all or part of its airports. For the first time in its history, Paris-Orly was closed to commercial flights in April and June, while Paris-Charles de Gaulle Terminals 1 and 3 handled no flights whatsoever.
Internationally, a number of network airports had to remain closed for several weeks, including Amman (Jordan) and Conakry (Guinea). Others, like the Turkish platforms operated by TAV Airports and Santiago de Chile airport, had to adapt to a very significant decline in traffic.
Even so, draconian health protection measures have been implemented in our French airports and all the international networks we manage. These include the compulsory wearing of face masks and provision of alcohol-based hand sanitiser gel dispensers inside all airports, more stringent disinfection procedures, public announcements and signs reminding everyone of the personal protective measures to be respected, thermal imaging cameras and even screening centres in some airports. These health measures have been recognised by ACI (Airports Council International) with the award of its Airport Heath Accreditation status to 22 Groupe ADP airports.