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Battle for control
Even in a year where air traffic has fallen to levels not seen in decades, air traffic control (ATC) still plays a vital role in regulating the flow of aircraft. But what happens when an ATC team comes down with coronavirus and how have airports been handling such setbacks? Nicholas Kenny speaks to Juliet Kennedy, operations director at NATS, and Teri L Bristol, COO of air traffic organization at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to find out.
Here comes the sun
Aviation has never been a bastion of environmental sustainability. But with rising temperatures, combined with greater social and political pressure, airports the world over are increasingly showing just how sustainable they can be. Andrea Valentino talks to Myron Keehn, vice-president of air service and business development at Edmonton International Airport, and Vincent Harrison, managing director at Dublin Airport, about why their organisations are choosing to go green, how new initiatives can both boost the planet and bank accounts, and how partnership with regulators might push even more sustainability going forward.
Up in the air
Air traffic around the world has crumbled in the wake of Covid-19. With an estimated 7,000 routes across Europe having been lost over the past year, Lynette Eyb speaks with ACI EUROPE director general Olivier Jankovec, Airport Operators Association CEO Karen Dee, and Andrew Charlton, an analyst at Aviation Advocacy, about the road to recovery.
Make a pass
It’s long been clear that the only way to maintain safe travel during the pandemic is by prioritising testing and making results easily available to travel authorities. While the focus has shifted to vaccinations in recent months, the need for a secure system to manage Covid-19-related health data is as urgent as ever. Lynette Eyb looks at what role International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) digital Travel Pass and other so-called ‘vaccination passports’ may play in getting people flying again.
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Beating the chill
As Climate change accelerator, the number of challenges faced by airport operators in winter is increasing dramatically. This is especially true in a weather-obsessed country like the UK – so it’s no surprise that it’s fallen to London Heathrow to figure out a solution. Andrea Valentino chats to James Shapland, transport operations manager at the Met Office, to learn how his colleagues help the airport to predict bad weather, what it is doing to mitigate disruption and how new technology might make winters less miserable for passengers going forward.
Cleaner skies
While the world was under lockdown, the number of aircraft in the sky fell to unprecedented levels. Now, aviation stakeholders are looking beyond this temporary lull to see what steps need to be taken to secure a more sustainable future for the air travel sector, as Lynette Eyb reports.
Machine hygiene
Societal expectations of hygiene levels in public spaces have tightened in the wake of Covid-19, with passengers growing increasingly anxious about possible infection as they pass through terminals and board aircraft. Could cleaning robots help to boost traveller confidence while pushing down transmission rates? Greg Noone speaks to Katherine Karolick, senior vice-president for information technology for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, and Mark Burgess, head of Heathrow Airport’s ‘Fly Safe’ programme, about how successful the roll-out of autonomous cleaning units has been at their respective hubs.
Touch-free travel
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced airports to consider how the virus could be transmitted in the terminal space – and, from there, into new locations all around the world. Preventing unnecessary contact between passengers and surfaces, however, could go a long way towards mitigating its spread. Andrea Valentino talks to Brede Nielsen, group chief information officer at Avinor, and Antoine Rostworowski, deputy director-general of Airports Council International, about the new technologies and processes making touchless travel a reality.
Transatlantic tribulations
Air traffic across the Atlantic was devastated during the pandemic thanks to US travel restrictions and pervasive national lockdowns across Europe. Now, airlines are urging governments on both sides of the pond to adopt new measures to protect this valuable flight path, while they tighten in-house hygiene measures to boost passengers’ confidence. Kerry Taylor-Smith talks to John Grant, executive vice-president of the Official Aviation Guide; Juha Jarvinen, CEO of Virgin Atlantic; and American Airlines spokesperson Nichelle Barrett, about what it will take to trigger a recovery in the transatlantic market.