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Passengers travelling through Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports will be required to cover their faces and wear gloves from Thursday, their owner has announced.
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) said: “The move by MAG is designed to ensure that the small number of passengers currently making essential journeys through its airports feel safer and more confident about flying, as well as providing a further level of protection to colleagues working at the airport.
“MAG also believes that the new guidelines represent a first step towards demonstrating ways in which air travel can be safe when more passengers start travelling again.”
It is believed these are the first UK airports to impose the measure.
Last month, Scotland became the first UK nation to officially recommend the use of face coverings during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UK government has yet to make a decision on whether to follow suit.
Face coverings are different from a surgical or other medical grade mask and refer to a facial covering of the mouth and nose that is made of cloth or other textiles and through which you can breathe – for example, a scarf.
Passengers are encouraged to bring their own gloves and face coverings or masks, but they will be provided in the early stages of the trial.
All airport staff serving passengers will wear gloves and masks.
The airports will also conduct temperature screening trials over the next few weeks, and are considering requiring passengers to make a health declaration before they are allowed to enter.
MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish said: “It’s clear that social distancing will not work on any form of public transport. But we’re confident that when the time is right, people will be able to travel safely.
“MAG has been working with the rest of the airport industry on a new safety framework for travel.
“We now need to work urgently with government to agree how we operate in the future. This has to be a top priority so that people can be confident about flying, and to get tourism and travel going again.
“At MAG we’ve taken expert medical advice on how people can travel safely, and we’re pleased to be piloting these new measures at our airports for those passengers who do still need to travel.
“We expect to be able to agree a new framework by the end of May that will support a restart of the industry as soon as possible.”
Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, announced on Wednesday that it will soon begin temperature screening of arriving passengers.