Rome rated first 5-star airport for Covid-19 prevention

Anyone eager to take to the global skies again may want to consider Rome as their first destination of choice in the post-pandemic world.

Rome’s Fiumicino Airport has just become the first airport in the world to earn “The Covid-19 5-Star Airport Rating” from Skytrax, the international airport ratings body.

Skytrax is best known for its annual rankings of the world’s best airports, and the global Covid-19 crisis has prompted them to come up with a category for airport hygiene.

According to a press release from Skytrax, they based their rating on, “A combination of procedural efficiency checks, visual observation analysis and available testing facilities.”

Fiumicino Airport, also known as Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, is the busiest airport in Italy.

On Sept 1, the airport opened a 7,000-square-foot Covid-19 rapid testing centre, co-managed with the Italian Red Cross.

The airport scored highly for strict enforcement of mask wearing, visibly present cleaning staff, and the routing of all incoming and outgoing flights through a single terminal for easier passenger tracking.

So far, Skytrax – whose head office is in the UK – has only been able to monitor European airports.

In addition to Leonardo Da Vinci’s five-star ranking, three airports have been awarded three stars for their Covid-19 response: Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport in Spain, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport in France and London’s Heathrow.

It is anticipated that when Southeast Asia’s international airports are finally flying again, they will take some beating when it comes to the new health and safety standards travellers will be expecting.