Regional Update

Communications manager, Samantha Solomon, rounds-up the latest news and developments from ACI Asia-Pacific.

AIRPORT HEALTH ACCREDITATION SUCCESS

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport had reason to celebrate in August when it became the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to become accredited under the recently launched ACI Airport Health Accreditation programme.

“Receiving the ACI Airport Health Accreditation is the result of the best efforts of 70,000 airport workers who are at the forefront of the national quarantine and the excellence of Korea’s response to COVID-19," said Bon-Hwan Koo, president and CEO of Incheon International Airport Corporation.

“Passengers’ safety is our highest priority and we will continue to make every effort to build a thorough quarantine system so that passengers can use our airport with confidence.”

ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme assists airports by assessing new health measures and procedures introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force recommendations.

Areas of assessment for accreditation include cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing (where feasible and practical), staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications and passenger facilities.

“It gives us great pleasure to announce that Incheon is the first airport in our region to successfully complete the online accreditation process for the Airport Health Accreditation programme. Passengers travelling through or to Seoul, Korea, can rest assured that Incheon is prioritising health and safety in a measurable, established manner," enthused ACI Asia- Pacific’s director general, Stefano Baronci.

Incheon was quickly followed in the accreditation stakes by Velana International Airport in the Maldives and Mumbai–Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in India.

Talking about Velana’s AHA success, Gordon Stewart, CEO and managing director of Maldives Airports Company Ltd (MACL), stated: “This achievement proves that the health and safety measures we are practising at VIA are in alignment with international best practices, ensuring the health and safety of our passengers, employees and other airport stakeholders.

“To have successfully passed the strict audit by ACI demonstrates that our airport is a safe place to visit. This achievement will no doubt build passenger confidence and provide a timely boost to Destination Maldives.”

The ICAO-supported Airport Health Accreditation programme, launched in July, has been positively received by airport operators globally, with more than 200 applying for the accreditation process to date. The fully-virtual application process is open to ACI member airports of all sizes globally across the regions.