Room For Improvement, but Generally On the Mark

National Air Transportation Association (NATA) president James K. Coyne congratulated the participants in an industry working group for their efforts in developing a series of recommendations for ways in which non-commercial aircraft operators and aviation businesses may enhance security at smaller, general aviation airports throughout the U.S. The recommendations present a series of voluntary, standardized guidelines the general aviation industry may use in continuing to ensure the security of its aircraft, flights and facilities.

The recommended guidelines, developed over the summer of 2003 by a broad-based industry working group formed by the government's Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC), were formally presented today in public meetings.  Industry representatives participating in developing the recommendations included airport managers, state government officials, aircraft operators and aviation businesses. NATA, the national trade association representing small businesses providing products and services to aircraft operators, served as a member of the working group throughout its deliberations.

"General aviation airports are completely different from their larger counterparts served by the scheduled airlines. They range from small, privately owned grass strips to major facilities in large cities that relieve traffic congestion at a nearby commercial airport and to everything in between," Coyne said. "This difference extends to the ways in which they can -- and cannot -- be secured. The working group took great pains to recognize this fundamental difference and develop meaningful recommendations. I'm pleased to say they succeeded."

Recommendations agreed to by the working group include guidelines addressing personnel issues, security-related infrastructure, surveillance, planning and communications plus so-called "special" flight operations, like agricultural aviation. The working group's recommendations were the result of a broad-based consensus among the various participating individuals and organizations. In many cases, they are based upon a series of similar recommendations each organization made in the aftermath of September 2001.

"In September 2001, NATA assembled scores of industry experts to develop a similar set of 'best practices' designed to enhance general aviation security," Coyne said. "That effort and the association's initial collection of guidelines have stood the test of time. I'm very pleased to point out that many of them are incorporated into the working group's final product."

One of the recommendations' most important features, according to Coyne, is that they represent minimum standards. Aviation businesses, airport managers and individual aircraft operators are free to exceed them. Similarly, they are designed to be considered at all general aviation airports, large and small, regardless of the financial resources available for implementation.

"These recommendations are designed to help general aviation managers organize their approach to enhancing security without requiring scarce financial resources," Coyne said. "The federal government has made it clear that the security of scheduled airlines is its highest priority.  That's as it should be, since terrorists have repeatedly demonstrated that segment of aviation is their favored target. However, one result is that there simply is no money available from federal agencies to pay for such enhancements at general aviation airports. Recognizing this, the working group went to great lengths to avoid placing any unfunded mandates on the aviation industry."

Another major feature of the working group's output is a restatement of the many security-related steps industry has taken -- whether voluntary or required by the federal government -- since 2001.  These include new federal regulations addressing security of non-scheduled passenger and cargo-carrying commercial aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more, requiring background screening of non-citizen flight students, a new FAA-designed pilot certificate and the numerous airspace restrictions still imposed throughout the U.S.  Similarly, all non-scheduled aircraft -- whether private or commercial -- are still banned from the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) adjacent to Washington, D.C.

"Without many members of the general public or the federal government actually realizing it, the general aviation industry has implemented a wide variety of measures designed to make it less vulnerable to potential misuse by a terrorist," Coyne noted. "For the most part, these steps have been implemented voluntarily instead of having been required by one agency or another. Yet, despite all that industry has done and has been required to do, one hurdle remains: Re-opening DCA to general aviation."

According to Coyne, NATA intends to work closely with local, state and federal government entities to implement the working group's recommendations. Once the recommendations are accepted by the ASAC, they will go to the Transportation Security Administration for distribution.

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