Shannon Airport employees are busily readying the airport in preparation for the return of passengers on July 1. While the airport remained open for essential services to facilitate cargo, repatriation, and emergency flights during the Covid-19 crisis, scheduled passenger services were suspended since the onset of the pandemic.
Shannon Airport is now implementing a series of rigorous new public health measures to protect the health and safety of returning passengers and employees at the airport.
Ryanair is due to recommence 16 services from Shannon Airport, starting on July 1, to Alicante, Barcelona-Reus, Faro, Fuerteventura, Kaunas, Krakow, Lanzarote, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Malaga, Manchester, Palma, Tenerife, Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Vienna.
A spokesperson for Shannon Group said: “The health and safety of our passengers and employees is our number one priority. We have remained open throughout the pandemic, facilitating the arrival into Ireland of vital PPE equipment, and were proud to do so. Preparations are now under way to ensure that our passengers returning to Shannon Airport can feel confident with the Covid-19 measures we have put in place throughout the airport.
“We are aiming to make the journey from arrival at the airport car park to boarding an airplane as easy and as contactless as possible. Our airline partners have also introduced new health and safety measures and we will continue to work with them to protect passengers through their entire journey.”
“Shannon Airport is a vital national strategic piece of infrastructure that plays an essential part in bringing business people, tourists, and cargo to the region. The ability of this region to rebuild in the aftermath of this pandemic is reliant on having a strong airport and we are working to put measures in place to have airport passenger services up and running with health and safety our priority.”
New Covid-19 health and safety measures at the airport
In as much as is possible, new measures in place will involve a contactless journey through the airport with minimal touchpoints.
More than 4,000 pieces of Covid-19 signage have been installed on the route to the airport and inside the terminal building. Multiple sanitiser dispensers and special hand sanitation stations, along with disinfectant wipes, have been installed throughout the airport starting at the entry doors. In addition to its normal cleaning services, the airport has introduced specialised Covid-19 deep cleaning and sanitisation services. Shannon Airport strongly recommends that all passengers bring and wear a face covering when inside the airport terminal building.
Protective glass screens have been erected at key customer facing areas throughout the terminal building including at check-in, all customer service desks, security screening areas, retail, and at boarding gates.
The two-metre social distancing guidelines have been implemented throughout with floor signage. Public seating has been reconfigured to ensure observation of the two-metre protocol, with stickers on seats which will be left vacant to ensure social distancing.
The airport’s public address system will incorporate social distancing reminders for passengers which will be repeated at regular intervals.
The measures reflect the national Covid-19 Health Service Executive (HSE ) guidelines and Government code of practice guidelines for air passengers, taking on board the best practice guidelines developed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA ) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC ).
