Quarantine time, thermal imaging cameras in focus

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 3: Deputy CEO of South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) Kwang Soo Lee, who is the project manager for the operation of the Terminal 4 (T4) at the Kuwait International Airport, says the airport deals with about 13 million people across five passenger terminals but the current facilities and systems are not sufficient to deal with the increasing demand for flights, reports Aljarida daily. In an interview with the daily, Lee stressed that Incheon places a great responsibility on its shoulders to boost revenues for Kuwait by improving the plan for developing commercial space and training young Kuwaitis. He highlighted that T4 does not take any revenues from the commercial operations of the terminal, rather the revenues from its commercial facilities are sent directly to the government and without any returns from its operations.

Affirmed
Lee affirmed about the provision of training programs for young Kuwaitis on airport operation, saying, “We will work on enhancing their knowledge in this field, and focus on making them experts in airport operations in the future”.

He revealed that the global aviation and travel industry, including airport operations, has not witnessed greater pressure before compared to today with the widespread COVID-19 crisis, especially since the Airport Council International (ACI) expects the pandemic to result in the elimination of 20 percent of passenger traffic and nearly half of its revenues by the end of 2020. Lee said, “In fact, what I focus most on, as the CEO of airport operations, is the gradual resumption of airport operations.

We are discussing the operating procedures with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in a timely manner, because we are focusing on implementing new measures, including securing sufficient time for quarantine procedures for passengers, and the establishment of sterilization facilities at all service sites, as well as use of thermal imaging cameras to detect and measure the temperatures of passengers at the entrances”.

In addition to the comprehensive sterilization of airport facilities, he indicated that these measures will persist until a vaccine for the virus is developed, and social distancing is likely to become the norm at airports, which entails a strict gap of 1.5 meters between the checkpoints in order to reduce the risk of exposure, in accordance with the Airport Council International standards.