The Saint John Airport is earning international accolades for its COVID-19 pandemic sanitation protocol.
The Airport Council International (ACI) welcomed the airport to its Airport Health Accreditation (AHA) program. Accreditation requires airports to meet a high-standard for cleanliness and sanitation as judged by the ACI.
With consumer confidence in airports plummeting after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, YSJ President and CEO Derrick Stanford said they decided to focus their effort on making the airport as welcoming to visitors as possible.
“Whether it’s the bins are cleaned by security through every pass-through, the washrooms are cleaned multiple times an hour,” Stanford said. “Anything you could possibly do to minimize every touch.”
The airport has also implemented one-way doors for both arrival and departures, and a significant level of pylons and signage to ensure users can easily follow safety directives.
With all the changes made to the usual procedures, it’s more important than ever to ensure the airport is communicating those changes to its users.
Stanford said with the downturn in air travel seen in 2020, he hopes this gives YSJ a leg up when folks needing to travel to the province are choosing their destination.
“(Among) the many things people will start to take into consideration before they start to embark on an airplane journey, there could be a preference for airports who have obtained this level of sanitization and cleanliness, so we wanted to make sure we had it.”
He says he’s also hoping to dispel what he calls some myths about air travel in the age of the pandemic.
Earlier this month, Canada’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Theresa Tam said she had not received any reports of the virus spreading on airplanes.
Stanford says despite the public’s fear, safety measures like mask compliance, high cleaning standards, and well-filtered air make airplanes a fairly safe place during the pandemic.
“The actual airplane journey, from just walking into the terminal to leaving the terminal at your destination is extremely safe, and extremely sanitized,” said Stanford.
