Security Highlights
Airport Security
Air travel is safe and secure, yet the recent terrorist attacks at Brussels and Istanbul airports reinforce the hard truth that aviation and air travel are targets for those seeking to disrupt and undo our interconnected world.
At the 72nd Annual General Meeting in June, IATA members unanimously adopted a resolution that denounces terrorism and calls for intensified cooperation among governments as well as within the air transport industry to keep flying secure.
In addition to stepping up cooperation among stakeholders, the resolution calls for devoting all possible government resources to protect against the targeting of aviation and air travelers by terrorists. The resolution also recognizes ICAO’s critical role in helping to reduce the threat of terrorism.
In line with this, and recognizing the escalating threat to landside areas of airports, the ICAO Council decided that existing landside security Recommended Practices contained in Annex 17 – Security – of the Chicago Convention be elevated to Standards. As landside security is a matter of national security as would apply to any public space, both in airports and non-aviation locations, this Amendment has been submitted to all Contracting States and will be presented to the ICAO Council for final adoption during its 209th Session in November 2016.
While it is vital to reduce the vulnerability to attack of all public spaces including landside areas, such efforts are not the first line of defense against terrorism. Intelligence and timely information sharing are the most powerful tools that governments have to protect their citizens wherever they are—at work, in their homes or while traveling.
IATA has been clear in its position that any new measures must not simply move the vulnerabilities upstream, as proposals to implement security screening before check-in will certainly do. Rather, all stakeholders must work together to reduce long lines that increase the attractiveness of airports as targets.
IATA continues to work with the industry on ways to eliminate queues, reduce waiting times and implement more effective screening processes through its Fast Travel and Smart Security initiatives. In the longer term, we need to rethink airport design to address better the security threats. Above all, coordination, cooperation and information sharing with governments and among stakeholders is key to reducing the threat of terrorism.
IATA is working hard with relevant ICAO AVSEC Panel Working Group to introduce a new Standard on information sharing through the next Amendment cycle to Annex 17 to be presented to the ICAO AVSEC Panel in 2017.
More on IATA policy activities related to security & risk management.