Fiumicino Airport in Rome has won the first-ever five-star anti-COVID award, an honour introduced recently by renowned international airport industry rating body, Skytrax, to felicitate airport hygiene. By Kumar Shree
Even though airports around the world are known for impeccable hygiene, the need for proper cleanliness saw a steady rise in recent months because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Keeping this in mind, Skytrax, an international rating body for airports around the world, came up with a new designation. While the organisation is known for its annual ranking list of world’s best airports, this time the focus was to award airport hygiene. That’s where the Fiumicino Airport ticked all the boxes to take home the world’s first five-star anti-COVID award. Now, this is an added reason for those looking forward to visiting Italy.
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As per a report on Skytrax’s official website, the audit for this award was “based on a combination of procedural efficiency checks, visual observation analysis and ATP sampling tests, with the consistency of standards being a key determinant in the final rating.”
Fiumicino Airport is also known as Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport and is one of the busiest airports in Italy. It had opened a 7,000-square-feet COVID-19 testing centre on September 1 and has been managing the same since then, collectively with Italian Red Cross.
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However, it is not the airport’s anti-COVID-19 efforts alone that earned it the award. Multiple other factors that contributed to its win, include easy-to-read signboards in multiple languages, strict monitoring to ensure all individuals wear masks at all times, efficient cleaning measures, and operating all flights from one single terminal for easy monitoring and tracking.
While Fiumicino Airport won a five-star rating, three other airports around the world received three stars each, for their response towards tackling the spread of the pandemic. These include Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport in Spain, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in France and London’s Heathrow Airport.
Related: First Time In India, Delhi Airport Introduces COVID-19 Testing Facility For International Arrivals
