Post-lockdown social distancing in airport queues won't work because they would need to be a kilometre long, the boss of Heathrow Airport has warned.
John Holland-Kaye has called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to "take a lead" in agreeing a common international standard for health in air travel to "save jobs".
“Forget social distancing – it won’t work in aviation or any other form of public transport, and the problem is not the plane, it is the lack of space in the airport," he wrote in a Daily Telegraph column.
"Just one jumbo jet would require a queue a kilometre long."
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The CEO said while social distancing at airports is completely impractical, a "package of measures" similar to Asia since the Sars crisis needs to be in place by the summer.
Mr Holland-Kaye said such an easily manageable attitude to safety is "practical, medically proven and builds confidence".
He suggested a health check on entering the terminal, with passengers who are displaying high temperatures receiving further checks to ensure they can fly.
He added that surgical face masks "may become the norm", while contact between passengers and airport staff would need to be lessened and "fantastic levels of hygiene" maintained.
Mr Holland-Kaye said such a common standard could be in place by next month for the highly profitable summer season if Britain, the EU and America can push forward discussions.
He said it will "save jobs in factories, farms and hotels, and...prevent mass redundancies in our local area".
"If [Mr Johnson] can take a lead on agreeing this common international standard for health in air travel, we will take a lead in getting the economy back to full throttle," he added.
Mr Holland-Kaye previously said social distancing on planes would reduce capacities by more than 50% and would mean "prices would shoot up".
EasyJet has suggested it could leave the middle seats on its planes empty when flights resume.
While Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary declared "we can keep people safe" as he gave his support to temperature checks.
"What we will have to do, though, when we do return, will be temperature checks at people entering airport terminals and train stations," he told the BBC.
"Anybody with a temperature of over 38 degrees will be refused entry."
The number of passengers travelling through Heathrow last month was down by around 97% compared with April 2019.
The west London airport expects passenger demand will "remain weak" until governments around the world "deem it safe to lift travel restrictions".
It recorded an 18.3% year-on-year decline in demand to 14.6 million passengers between January and March, while earnings before tax and interest fell by 22.4% to £315 million.
The airport insisted its financial position is "robust", with £3.2 billion in liquidity, which is "sufficient to maintain the business at least over the next 12 months, even with no passengers".
