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Coronavirus: This will be the ‘new normal’ at the Guayaquil airport with distance measures
Posted On 14 May 2020
That custom of going as a family to the airport to say goodbye or wait for a relative near the doors will no longer be part of the ‘new normal’ once all the regular passenger flights in Guayaquil are reactivated.
Coronavirus: This will be the ‘new normal’ at the Guayaquil airport with distance measures
Companions will not be able to enter the air terminal as they did until before the coronavirus pandemic. They can only advance to the parking area and the traveler must enter without company.
And it will not be the only requirement, since passengers must comply with a series of provisions to be able to travel, such as wearing face masks at the airport , something that is demanded of those who travel these days on humanitarian flights.
They are part of the measures being considered for the resumption of operations. The Municipality of Buenos Aires will send the protocol to the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) for the airport to resume its regular flights from June 1.
Mayor Cynthia Viteri says it has been proposed that every passenger arriving in the city undergo a rapid coronavirus test .
Tagsa, the Guayaquil airport concessionaire, has been adapting the terminal in recent weeks to adjust to this new reality for travel.
Ángel Córdova, manager of Tagsa, points out that digital temperature meters have been placed in all entrances and inside the airport. They also installed a large temperature meter that can cover up to 40 people in the arrival area and which they have given to the Ministry of Health.
As other airports in Europe and Asia have done, the terminal also installed protective sanitary screens in all customer service counters and departure lounge stations to avoid contact between the passenger and the airline agent.
The way to queue will also change with the new rules of physical distance . Tagsa placed signs on the floor so that each person knows where to locate while waiting for a turn to be attended or enter migration.
In the waiting rooms the central chairs have been blocked to prevent people from sitting next to each other. Photo: Courtesy Tagsa.
Inside waiting rooms, travelers should get used to being separated. The dealership has disabled the center chairs, placing signs to prohibit them from sitting together.
Córdova indicates that in this initial phase of adjustments they have allocated some $ 300,000.
That item is only to start, as there are other actions that will demand resources due to the frequency in which they must be carried out, such as disinfecting the areas through which users transit, placing gel devices and luggage disinfection tunnels.
As the terminal is almost ready to resume operations with the new changes, passengers who have traveled on humanitarian flights this week have already felt some of these changes. Only the endorsement of the COE is expected.
Isolation
The Municipality of Guayaquil has proposed to put triage points and rapid tests to measure and know how many people could be infected. It proposes that people who test positive for COVID-19 comply with controlled isolation. Mayor Cynthia Viteri points out that the system must be established with government authorities. (I)
