LONDON: The United Kingdom airline industry has backed British Airways Chairman, Mr. Martin Broughton‘s call for changes to airport security checks, the British Briadcaasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.
Mike Carrivick of BAR United Kingdom, which represented more than 80 airlines, said the industry should ”step back and have a look at the whole situation”.
Broughton said some ”completely redundant” security checks should go.
The Department for Transport said there were no plans to change rules on checking laptops and shoes.
Practices such as forcing passengers to take off their shoes should be abandoned, he added.
He also criticised the United States for imposing increased checks on United States-bound flights but not on its own domestic services, saying the UK should stop ”kowtowing” to US security demands.
And he questioned why laptop computers needed to be screened separately.
Carrivick which represented scheduled airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and BMI, said airport security seemed to be a ”layered approach”.
He added, “Every time there is a new security scare, an extra layer is added on to procedures.
”We need to step back and have a look at the whole situation. Standards change fairly regularly and this puts pressure on airports and airlines. We need to decide what we are trying to do and how best to do it.”
BAA‘s chief executive, Mr. Colin Matthews said security at Heathrow and its other airports was ”defined by the authorities” and consisted of ”one requirement laid on top of another”.
He added, “There‘s European requirements, there‘s UK requirements and US requirements laid on top of that.
“We could certainly do a better job for customers if we could rationalise all of that into a single, coherent process, and I‘d love to have the chance to do that.”
The US stepped up security in January in the wake of an alleged bomb plot.
It introduced tougher screening rules, including body pat-down searches and carry-on baggage checks, for passengers arriving from 14 nations which the authorities deem to be a security risk.
Passengers from any foreign country may also be checked at random.
Speaking at the UK Airport Operators‘ Association annual conference, Broughton said that no-one wanted weaker security.
But he was quoted by the Financial Times as telling the conference: ”We all know there‘s quite a number of elements in the security programme which are completely redundant and they should be sorted out.”
Broughton, who was also chairman of Liverpool Football Club, added the UK should only agree to security checks that the US required for passengers on domestic flights.
”America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,” he said. ”We shouldn‘t stand for that.
”We should say, ‘We‘ll only do things, which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential‘.”
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101028142054
No comments:
Post a Comment