The security of passengers and employees remains to be top priority for the aviation industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) declared.

Each year, airlines and their passengers invest US$5.9 billion in security measures.

Now, the association urged the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to partner with the aviation industry to identify the most effective and efficient ways to address the evolving security challenge after the foiled terrorist plot to bring down a Detroit-bound aircraft.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani appreciated the swift reaction of DHS to maintain the confidence of the flying public and airline employees.

However, permanent solutions must include improved technology and effective risk assessment techniques, he stressed. “The air transport system cannot support 100% pat-down searches over the long term.”

IATA recommends a smaller percentage of intensive pat downs accompanied by technologies or proportionate screening procedures to achieve near-term security requirements and reduce delays.

While security is a government responsibility, it is a shared priority with the industry. Bisignani urged DHS to allow the current short-term measures to be followed-up by a comprehensive DHS/industry review of security systems to address existing and evolving security threats.

The failed Detroit terror plot emphasized two key realities: the global nature of the threat and the need for effective cooperation and information sharing among and within intelligence organizations.

“Effective security needs a system that is built on global harmonization, effective information exchange, industry/government cooperation, risk assessment and efficient technology. This is how we made flying the safest way to travel. We must take the same approach with security,” Bisignani pointed out.

Numbers illustrate the scale of the challenge. In the 12 months to September 2009, air transport connected 2.2 billion passengers safely and securely. This includes 820 million international travelers of which 140 million were international travelers on US routes.
Another component is the US domestic market which accounts for 620 million travelers.

“We live on an interconnected planet. Effective security cannot be achieved with a silo-approach,” the IATA CEO emphasized.

As governments, with industry, review security in the days and weeks ahead, Bisignani urged a long-term re-think of the security model.

“Instead of looking for bad things nail clippers and rogue bottles of shampoo security systems need to focus on finding bad people.
Adding new hardware to an old system will not deliver the results we need,” he elabored.

“It is time for governments to invest in a process built around a check point of the future that combines the best of screening technology with the best of intelligence gathering. Such a system would give screeners access to important passenger data to make effective risk assessments. The data is being collected. The technology exists.

Industry is supportive. Now ICAO and governments must work together to make such a process a reality with global harmonization and data-sharing.”