Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports asks passengers to wear face masks

Clients travelling through Manchester, Stansted and East aMidlands airports will be asked to wear face masks from today (May 7).

The airports, owned by Manchester Airport Group, has introduced new protocols in light of the Covid-19 crisis. 

Passengers arriving or departing at the three airports will be asked to wear gloves and face masks or coverings.

In the early stages of the pilot, those arriving at the airport without will be provided with gloves and masks.

MAG said the move was "designed to ensure that the small number of passengers currently making essential journeys through its airports feel safer and more confident about flying". It also aims to provide protection to airport staff.

All MAG staff will wear gloves and face masks too and staff working for airport partners will be encouraged to. 

The airports will also be conducting temperature screening trials and the airport bosses are currently considering asking all passengers to make a health declaration in order to enter its airports.

Group 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.”

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