Philadelphia and Heathrow sign MoU to collaborate on COVID-19 recovery

Credit: Philadelphia International Airport

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) has announced that it has signed a unique and targeted Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with London Heathrow Airport (LHR), committing both airports to working closer together to support the recovery from COVID-19.

“Heathrow is PHL’s busiest transatlantic route, with more than 2,200 annual flights and 455,000 onboarded passengers in 2019,” said Philadelphia Airport‘s CEO, Chellie Cameron. “This partnership will help us to safely restart travel for our most important transatlantic trade corridor.”

The MoU focuses on boosting passenger numbers, implementing innovative measures, increasing international cooperation, working with stakeholders across both airports’ industries and working jointly to advocate the airports’ respective government and industry organisations.

“We have been working closely with PHL over the past six months – exchanging information and best practice – supporting the delivery of a safe and secure environment for our passengers,” said Heathrow Airport‘s CEO, John Holland-Kaye. “We wanted to take this engagement a step further by signing an MoU as we work hard to bring back a safe and meaningful restart of travel between the UK and U.S.”

The MoU represents a framework by which the airports can help the LHR-PHL route and United States-United Kingdom connectivity recover. Heathrow and Philadelphia have also jointly penned a letter to the U.S. and UK governments which supports the removal of border restrictions to reflect the success of the vaccination programmes and leads to the safe reopening of travel between the two countries.