What do we have to do and why do we have to pay for it? These questions dominated security issue talks at the IATA annual general meeting in Washington. IATA's Giovanni Bisignani says: "New security regulations cost airlines $5 billion in 2002. Why are people paying for their own security in the air and not on the road? Why should they pay for security at airports and not in train stations?"
At a discussion among a panel of leading industry figures, Airports Council International-North America president David Plavin said airport security "is a national security venture that ought to be paid for on the national level".
Northwest Airlines chief executive Richard Anderson said the fees are excessive. The airline average round-trip ticket, with a hub connection, bears a higher tax rate than alcohol or tobacco, he says.
British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington raised another long-running complaint: the hassle factor - notably the double screening required for passengers making international/domestic connections. Tom Blank, a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) policy-maker, said TSA would likely examine baggage-checking pilot programmes that could ease this problem. It will first look at the needs for US-Canada travel. This is in the conceptual stages, he says.
Blank says TSA has made progress on the contentious smart card and identification document idea. It is now establishing an office with sole responsibility for issuing identification documents, including those for airline and airport employees and those for trusted travellers.
Blank and Anderson defends Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS), a version of which Northwest developed with TSA. A newer version, CAPPS II, has met criticism from civil libertarians, but Blank says it would protect individual privacy, and stressed it would not allow factors such as race or ethnicity to influence the selection of a passenger for additional screening.
Eddington attacks "one size fits all" security checks, calling it irrational to subject a 75-year-old grandmother to the same degree of inspection as a 25-year-old man who had bought a last-minute ticket with cash. CAPPS II is intended to customise the level of scrutiny, Anderson adds.
Source: Airline Business
