Passengers, wearing protective face masks, walk through the international arrivals hall after arriving at Heathrow Airport in London
Passengers, wearing protective face masks, walk through the international arrivals hall after arriving at Heathrow Airport in London | Photo: Simon Dawson | Bloomberg
Text Size:

Singapore: Heathrow Airport is introducing cleaning robots and other measures to try to reduce the risk of virus transmission at the U.K. aviation hub as the country eases travel restrictions.

The robots use ultraviolet rays to kill viruses and bacteria at night, according to a statement from the airport, which didn’t say how many of the machines were being deployed.

The airport is also installing UV technology to disinfect escalator handrails, and self-cleaning anti-viral wraps are being fitted to often-touched surfaces such as security trays and elevator buttons. One hundred workers are being retrained as “hygiene technicians” to monitor the effectiveness of the new technologies and answer passenger queries, Heathrow said.

The U.K., with nearly 300,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 45,000 deaths, lifted quarantine-on-arrival rules last week for people landing from 74 countries and territories. Heathrow said Monday that the number of people passing through the airport was down 95% in June from a year earlier.

“We have reviewed the entire Heathrow airport experience to ensure that our passengers and colleagues are kept safe as travel resumes to ‘Green’ and ‘Amber’ countries,” Heathrow Chief Executive Officer John Holland Kaye said in the statement. “Now we need the government to safely restore Britain’s long-haul connections as the country prepares for life outside the EU.”

Other measures at the airport include “Fly Safe Pit Stops,” where passengers can pick up free face masks, hand sanitizers and wipes. Apple Inc. is also testing alerts to help guide travelers through the airport, Heathrow said.- Bloomberg

 

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram

News media is in a crisis & only you can fix it

You are reading this because you value good, intelligent and objective journalism. We thank you for your time and your trust.

You also know that the news media is facing an unprecedented crisis. It is likely that you are also hearing of the brutal layoffs and pay-cuts hitting the industry. There are many reasons why the media’s economics is broken. But a big one is that good people are not yet paying enough for good journalism.

We have a newsroom filled with talented young reporters. We also have the country’s most robust editing and fact-checking team, finest news photographers and video professionals. We are building India’s most ambitious and energetic news platform. And we aren’t even three yet.

At ThePrint, we invest in quality journalists. We pay them fairly and on time even in this difficult period. As you may have noticed, we do not flinch from spending whatever it takes to make sure our reporters reach where the story is. Our stellar coronavirus coverage is a good example. You can check some of it here.

This comes with a sizable cost. For us to continue bringing quality journalism, we need readers like you to pay for it. Because the advertising market is broken too.

If you think we deserve your support, do join us in this endeavour to strengthen fair, free, courageous, and questioning journalism, please click on the link below. Your support will define our journalism, and ThePrint’s future. It will take just a few seconds of your time.

Support Our Journalism