Airports Council International (ACI) calls on governments to recognize airport workers as essential as vaccination programmes are rolled out once the needs of the most vulnerable people and healthcare workers are met.
ACI World says it believes that once key workers and the most vulnerable people are looked after – airport workers are recognized as essential and prioritized for vaccination. Airport workers are frontline staffs who are in daily contact with the travelling public so prioritizing them for vaccination will further demonstrate that the health and safety of passengers and staff remains of paramount importance to the industry.
Additionally, aviation will play an increasingly crucial role in supporting the social and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, through the movement of essential goods – including the distribution of vaccines – across the world as well as facilitating the growing number of people who will be travelling in the coming months.
Luis Felipe de Oliveira, ACI World Director General, state: “As the global roll-out of vaccines commences, it is clear that the most vulnerable in our society and those key healthcare workers who are doing so much to keep us all safe and healthy are prioritized for vaccination. As this crucial group is vaccinated, it is then important for other key groups are prioritized to receive the vaccines so they can support a global recovery from the pandemic.”
“Airport workers are, for the most part, frontline staff that are in contact with the public every day so ensuring that they are prioritized for vaccination will provide further evidence of the industry’s commitment to the health and safety of passengers and staff,” Mr. Oliveira adds.
He says aviation will also be a key engine, driving the recovery from the pandemic through the movement of essential goods, including, of course, the vaccines, and through the economic and social benefits that are delivered to the communities airports serve.
“Around 60 per cent of those employed in aviation work at airports so it is important that governments recognize airport workers as essential and are prioritized for vaccination so they can help deliver the recovery that the world needs,” Mr Oliveira concludes.