Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye, who is in charge of the Uk’s busiest airport has said a “risk-based” approach is needed to get people back to flying again.
He backs the idea of “air bridges” between countries with lower infections to provide help for the tourism sector.
Holland-Kaye that thermal screening measures which detects elevated temperatures “could be part of a future common international standard to get people flying again.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “The government’s got a tough job to do.
“If they think that quarantine is the right thing to do, I think we have to go with that, but it has to be time-limited and we have to plan for what comes next.
“The idea of air bridges … is a very sensible way of doing that.
“There is no perfect way to make sure only healthy people fly at this stage, so we have to take a risk-based approach.
“As the level of transmission comes down in this country and in other countries, we need to find a way that the vast, vast, vast majority of people who don’t have a disease can still fly.”
He added, “We have followed Public Health England’s advice. Now we have started working with them to introduce this thermal screening. It’s not yet government policy.
“But we are a global hub airport, we are the lifeblood of the UK economy.
“Many of our passengers are travelling all over the world, very often connecting, and we need to adopt a common international standard, not just a UK standard.”
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