Mon, Jan 25, 2010
International Meeting Focused On Safety Standards
The International Air Transport
Association (IATA) hosted an aviation security summit with the US
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week. IATA Director
General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani and DHS Secretary Janet
Napolitano discussed industry/government cooperation to improve
aviation security around the world.
"The aviation industry is committed to keeping the global skies
safe and secure. We live in a global world with global connectivity
and global threats. The challenge is to protect the benefits of
aviation connectivity and eliminate the threats. Governments and
industry have the same goals but different expertise. Governments
understand the threats and the tools needed to mitigate them.
Industry has the operational expertise for effective
implementation. Working together is the only way forward," said
Bisignani.
The summit was held at IATA’s headquarters in Geneva and
included the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), top executives from 25 airlines as well as
participants from the US Government.
"Effective aviation security relies upon close coordination
between airlines, government and law enforcement to identify, deter
and disrupt threats," said Secretary Napolitano. "I am committed to
working closely with the airline industry and my international
counterparts to strengthen global aviation security standards for
passengers traveling to the United States and around the
world."
Bisignani commended the US for proactively engaging the aviation
industry. "We applaud Secretary Napolitano’s commitment
to engage industry and find workable and effective solutions.
A single meeting cannot solve all the security challenges we face
but it is a major step in the right direction. We had a lot to
teach each other and today is the start of a regular high-level
dialogue on this critical issue. This cooperation should become a
model for other countries to adopt," Bisignani said. IATA and DHS
agreed to hold a follow-up meeting in the coming weeks.
During the meeting, IATA and its member airlines made several
recommendations including:
- Institutionalizing government/industry cooperation: This would
allow security policies to be written with the benefit of airline
operational expertise. IATA encouraged ICAO to create a template
for such cooperation to be implemented globally.
- Implementation: Recognize that prescriptive, one-size-fits-all
regulations with numerical targets will not secure a complex global
industry. Governments must work with industry to define practical
implementation measures for their security targets.
- Passenger data collection: Make passenger data collection and
sharing more efficient: IATA urged DHS to break down internal silos
to create a single data collection and sharing program that could
serve as a model for implementation by other governments.
- Harmonization across borders: Governments must talk to each
other to ensure that one country’s requirements do not
conflict with another country’s laws.
- Next generation checkpoint: Along with optimizing the
capabilities of current screening technology, we must begin to look
at future checkpoints that combine technology and intelligence.
“We need a checkpoint system that focuses on finding bad
people, not just bad objects,” said Bisignani.
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