UK Expats Who Travel Home via Spain’s Airports on the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca will get an Experience as Enjoyable as Open Heart Surgery

UK expats travelling through Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca airports will get an experience as enjoyable as open heart surgery.

That’s the view of a leading Middle Eastern airport boss, who says that all such facilities will have a completely different way of doing things as major international air travel tries to gear up to return in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Going through an airport, the whole travel experience, will be as enjoyable as open-heart surgery,” according to Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airport.

His view is not optimistic of what passengers can expect with new temperature check points, lines of distancing people stretching into the parking lot, and plexiglass barriers isolating baggage clerks and other staff members.

Face masks and gloves will be compulsory, disinfectants will be everywhere, and even though many processes will be automated to minimise human interaction, air travel experts are predicting that journey times will have to increase to take account of all the new health precautions.

As governments draw up plans to get the world flying again, proposals aimed at keeping passengers safe are often confusing and contradictory – for instance keeping people from sitting next to each other at the departure gate but cramming them six or eight abreast for hours during a flight.

And if implemented long-term, observers say they could do almost as much damage to airline and airport profits as remaining closed altogether.

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Written by

Alex Trelinski

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