Airports saw a massive downturn in passenger numbers almost overnight and the aviation industry has been hit hard by the Covid-19 global pandemic. Heathrow Airport reported a 96.96% decrease in passenger traffic in April, year on year. As the world emerges from lockdown and passenger numbers start to slowly increase, airports are looking for ways to enable both staff and customers to return safely.
Heathrow Airport approached MiniTec in April regarding safety solutions. They were planning to introduce safety screens in areas of significant people interaction, including bag search areas, ID reception and booths and security lanes. These would need to be ready as soon as air traffic started to increase, although there was no set date.
MiniTec reacted quickly. Close but remote liaison with Heathrow’s on-site engineers allowed MiniTec to design screens, create CAD drawings and produce initial solutions for testing. The flexibility of their profile system and hands-on design capability enabled prototypes for the safety screens to be ready within two weeks.
The screens had to be approved and completed quickly. MiniTec met and exceeded the challenge, turning around six prototypes. Within the same month, they delivered over 80 units for installation at Heathrow. There are now more than 300 screens installed – and growing. Consequently, MiniTec is proud to have been awarded Tier 1 Supplier status for Heathrow Airport.
Gary Livingstone, MiniTec MD, discusses this and more is his podcast episode of That Engineering Chat. Please visit www.thatpodcast.co.uk or search for That Engineering Chat in your podcast streaming app to download and listen now.
For more information about MiniTec’s Social Distancing Screens, visit their website https://www.minitec.co.uk/solution/heathrow-airpor... or call the UK office on 01256 365605.
