London’s Heathrow Airport is “deep cleaning” and making hand sanitisers available to staff and passengers to protect against the spread of coronavirus.
Talking to BBC radio, CEO John Holland-Kaye also surprisingly played down the impact of the disease on passenger numbers, saying “we don’t see it being material”.
However, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have cancelled flights from the airport to China.
Holland-Kaye said, “We are doing reasonable precautions which do go beyond those recommendations [from government body Public Health England] just to make sure people stay safe and are reassured.
“We are deep cleaning the airport so that handrails and things that people might touch will be as clean as possible and also are making sure there’s a provision of hand sanitisers, as well as the usual bathroom cleaning, to make sure people keep their hands clean as we know that is the biggest risk of infection.
“We will be updating the market at the end of March when we will probably have a better view, but from a financial point of view, at this stage, we don’t see it being material.”
Britain’s Heathrow, which is owned by Ferrovial, Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp, is the busiest hub in Europe and is currently awaiting a final decision on if it can build a third runway.
A decision is expected on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the airport reported adjusted core earnings of £1.9 billion for 2019, up 4.6 per cent.
Revenues rose 3.4 per cent to £3.1 billion, led by a small increase in passenger numbers.
