Covid-19 updates

COVID-19 Update 74

Thursday 2 July 2020

Dear AOA Member,

Today the extent of further job cuts in the aerospace and aviation industries was made apparent with the full detail of Airbus cuts in Wales and the South West. The reporting has also highlighted the other businesses that are dependent on aviation and aerospace, which is a point raised by AOA in our conversations with Government and Parliament.

Meanwhile Government vacillation and delay on the quarantine policy continues. Whilst jobs are being lost across the sector, an announcement on the detail of International Travel Corridors and the new border health measures is still awaited. There has been a suggestion that the delay has come about due to an impasse between the Government and the devolved nations about the countries they would exempt from quarantine, however that is just conjecture. AOA has emphasised to Government that the public and the aviation industry need clarity urgently. It is vital that any change in policy should come as soon as possible, in order to save as much of the summer travel season as possible, and put the aviation industry on a better footing for the winter low season.

Finally, to help airport members with their restart communications and passenger confidence, AOA has joined with the UK Travel Retail Forum (UKTRF) on their Travel Safe campaign. The campaign includes public-facing signage and digital materials on the various public health measures taken by airports, retailers and airlines; eventually this will also include social media content for use on social media channels. As you and your teams prepare for a restart to operations and changes, such as the recent change in social distancing guidance, come forward, we hope you will find the resources useful. Travel Safe materials are available to download from this dropbox link. Pre-made signs using a variety of icon combinations are available in the folder titled “Pre-made display content”. If you wish to generate your own signs, all the components your designer will need are in the folder titled “Files for creating display content”. We’ll keep you informed on the progress of the campaign, and further materials, as they become available.

Other items of note:

• In Tuesday’s AOA COVID-19 Update, I made reference to the CAA extending ATCO recency requirements and linked to the relevant CAA documentation (ORS4 1399). Unfortunately this extension was swiftly retracted. We have since engaged with the CAA and will hopefully be able to provide further understanding as to future CAA actions on recency requirements next week.
• As I mentioned in an update last week, EASA have updated their Safety Directive on COVID-19 and following feedback from European airports has removed the list of airports in areas of high infection from Annex 1 of the directive.

Best wishes,

Karen Dee
Chief Executive