Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport receives the highest 5-Star COVID-19 Airport Safety Rating

by Skytrax: London, UK

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has been Certified with the highest 5-Star COVID-19 Safety Rating, and becomes the first airport in China to receive this Safety Certification.

The 5-Star COVID-19 Airport Safety Rating is a top recognition of the effectiveness of the hygiene and safety measures introduced by Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to protect their customers and staff against the spread of coronavirus. This Safety Accreditation is regarded as a global benchmark for defining safe travel assurance for customers.

The COVID-19 audit was conducted in May / June 2021 evaluating over 175 safety protocols introduced by Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance customer and staff safety. The audit included assessment of the airport’s implementation of health, hygiene, and safety measures in accordance with the recommendations of the ICAO Council’s Aviation Recovery Task Force, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Preventing Spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Guideline (Seventh Edition).

Edward Plaisted of Skytrax said: “We are impressed with the scale and consistency of COVID-19 Safety protocols that are provided here at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, and congratulate them on becoming the first airport in China to receive this highest COVID-19 Airport Safety Rating. The airport has introduced a most comprehensive set of hygiene and safety procedures to create the safest environment for their customers and staff, matching the highest international standards.”

COVID-19 standards at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

In 2020, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was confirmed as the worlds busiest airport, handling 43.768 million passengers, and this success was driven by a resurgence in domestic air travel demand in China.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport responded to the risks of COVID-19 by launching an extensive programme of safety measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease. Throughout the terminals there are frequent hand sanitisers including high-contact areas such as check-in, boarding gates, and self-service facilities.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, the airport has had dedicated staff to remind passengers to wear face masks, as well as managing queue control. These onsite patrol staff pro-actively approaches passengers who did not wear a face mask and reminds them to do so.

A big focus of improvement at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has been the introduction of contactless technology. All customers must scan their QR health code to enter the terminal and there are automatic temperature checks before boarding flights, contactless check in is available, lifts have contactless buttons, handrails for escalators and moving walkways have UV sanitisation, intelligent disinfection robots are used. The airport has enhanced the airflow and air purification in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

The airport has increased the regularity of sanitisation for baggage trolleys and airside hand luggage trolleys, and trays at security processing are disinfected between each customer use.

For items such as toilets, all touchable surfaces are sanitized and cleaned every two hours (non-peak periods) and every hour during peak periods. The elevators around the airport are disinfected minimum 3 times a day and button panels are disinfected with 75% alcohol sanitiser every hour.

The airport uses a health guidance PA in all terminal areas, the contents of which are provided by China’s Health Department in English and Chinese languages.

Social distancing is provided throughout the terminals with a range of floor markers, seat markers, and with customer capacity restrictions in shops and restaurants.

The COVID-19 Safety Rating evaluates how effectively and consistently COVID-19 procedures are being provided,  including terminal cleanliness, cleaning and disinfection procedures, standard and usage conformity of staff personal protective equipment, branding, standard and application of social distancing signage, floor markers and seat distancing, hand sanitiser facilities, airport PA guidance, organisation and control of passenger flows around the airport, security screening hygiene systems, general passenger facilities (e.g. baggage trolleys) and control of social distancing and face mask usage.

A 5-Star COVID-19 Airport Safety Rating recognises very high standards of airport cleanliness and maintenance procedures. Airports achieving 5-Star deliver many Best Practice systems of cleanliness and hygiene monitoring, and most importantly, these protocols are adhered to consistently. In addition to excellent visual cleanliness and terminal presentation standards, 5-Star COVID-19 Airports may use UV sanitisation and mass disinfectant treatments which are scientifically evaluated.

ABOUT GUANGZHOU BAIYUN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Currently, there are three runways and 269 standard aprons (including FBO). With a building area of 523,000 square meters, Terminal 1, coming into service on August 4, 2004, consists of a main building and six concourses. Terminal 2 and the Integrated Transportation Center, put into use on April 26, 2018, covers an area of 880,700 square meters. It has a main building and five concourses. In 2004, the passenger throughput exceeded 20 million person-times in the year of transfer. Since then, it has grown rapidly with a net increase of 10 million passengers every three years. In 2007, the passenger throughput exceeded 30 million person-times, 40 million in 2010, 50 million in 2013 and 65 million in 2017. In 2019, it exceeded 70 million again with an annual passenger throughput exceeding 73 million person-times. Baiyun International Airport is the base airport of China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, 9 Air, China Central Longhao Airlines and Zhejiang Loong Airlines.

ABOUT SKYTRAX
Skytrax is the International air transport rating organisation established in 1989 and based in London, United Kingdom. In 2020, Skytrax launched the COVID-19 Safety Ratings covering airports across the world, providing independent, expert evaluation and certification of airport COVID-19 hygiene and safety measures. The Skytrax COVID-19 Safety Accreditation is regarded as a global benchmark for defining safe travel assurance for customers.

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