Industry debates cargo security responsibilities

Late last year, intelligence-led security checks on a UPS aircraft at the UK's East Midlands airport and a FedEx Express facility in Dubai uncovered explosives in packages that had originated in Yemen. Immediately, a searing spotlight shone on air cargo security and its adequacy.

Debate raged at November's timely AVSEC World conference, organised by the International Air Transport Association. Airline representatives identified a need for certificated technologies capable of scanning whole pallets and outsize items. But detection system providers were insistent that adequate technologies existed; what was needed were agreed international standards governing their deployment. This remains their concern.

Narrow regulatory responses to the Yemen terror alert blocked air freight from that country - FedEx Express says "all shipments outbound from Yemen remain suspended". The UK took the reductive step of restricting carriage of toner cartridges, in which explosives had been packed. But any overarching philosophy on how best to deal with threats is still at the planning stage.

© Smiths Detection Smiths Detection supplies high-energy X-ray systems for checking cargo at ports and borders

Bernhard Semling, vice-president of sales at global technology company Smiths Detection, notes that work has been done on developing a screening protocol and procedures for gathering additional intelligence on "who is sending what to whom", but "there is still no common accepted international standard". And the US Transportation Security Administration's requirements differ from other countries'.

Semling frames the dilemma: "What do we need to do now? If we now need to invest in technology or in screening equipment, we want to ensure that we can use that equipment for at least a useful period of time."

Smiths Detection's ongoing product development aims at "improving the image evaluation functionality" and automatic detection capability. Technologies devised for screening checked baggage are being adapted to unconsolidated air cargo. "The bigger the load gets, the more difficult it becomes to reliably screen the load," Semling acknowledges.

For now, deal-making is to some extent stifled by the uncertainty. Semling says potential customers are cautious, and are saying: "We're not 100% sure what the requirement will be in the future. Let's understand that first and then move from there." Nonetheless, the market is at a "high level", Semling adds. Indeed, in the weeks after October's foiled plot, demand for air cargo screening technology increased "three to four times, as a ballpark figure".

Safran-owned Morpho Detection acknowledges that it works in "an event-driven industry". Each cataclysm prompts an "immediate knee-jerk reaction" and a "longer-term, more measured solution to close that gap".

With political processes tending to lag the events that precipitate them, Morpho's focus is on the "cat-and-mouse game" with terrorists. And a range of operators - from mom-and-pop freight forwarders to huge aggregators - are interested in screening technologies as a means of mitigating business risks.

Any imposed standards would need to acknowledge the air cargo business model's reliance on timeliness. But Morpho marketing director Marc Van Hooghten acknowledges calls for more standardisation at IATA's World Cargo Symposium in March, and comments: "For the industry, it can drive new technology and each industry can put much more effort and invest in new technology when they know what specific standards there are on the global scale."

© Morpho Detection

Broadly, three levels of detection technology are applied in air cargo security: X-ray, trace, and computed tomography-based explosive detection systems. X-ray can identify anomalies in pallet-sized shipments for manual scrutiny. Trace systems, highly portable, can be used to check individual packages - or the outsides of pallets - for the presence of explosives, and still more sophisticated systems to conduct deeper analysis. "Trace became more and more acceptable after the Yemen incident," says Van Hooghten. He expects European standards "by summer".

At the World Cargo Symposium, IATA restated its argument that responsibility for air cargo security should be shared more widely across supply chains. Websites that encourage individuals to ship packages by air should ensure consignments are safe, the association contends. "We must resist the knee-jerk call for 100% cargo screening," said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani. "Air cargo security must be based on a combination of three measures - supply chain security, scanning technology and better use of e-freight data."

Naturally, shippers would be less keen on the theory that security responsibility should move up the chain. But networking group the Shippers' Voice does share IATA's view that intelligence, rather than technology per se, should be the driver. Andrew Traill, managing partner, asserts that 100% scanning "repeatedly gets shown to be found wanting".

With international air cargo volume predicted by IATA to reach 38 million tonnes in 2014, both the cat-and-mouse game and the attendant debate are set only to intensify.

Source: Flight International