US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (right) gestures next to International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani during a news conference after their meeting at the IATA headquarters.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the USA recently agreed on aviation security cooperation initiatives to keep global skies safe, a model that other governments should follow.

“This cooperation should become a model for other countries to adopt,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani stressed after the IATA summit with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which included the Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and top executives from 25 airlines in Geneva, Switzerland.

“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,” he summed up.

During the meeting, IATA and its member airlines recommended to institutionalize 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.

IATA acknowledged 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.

The summit also underscored the importance of passenger data collection. The airlines agreed to make passenger data collection and sharing more efficient. Hence, IATA urged DHS to break down internal silos to create a single data collection and sharing program to serve as a model for implementation by other governments.

Furthermore, they agreed on harmonization across borders.
Governments must talk to each other to ensure that one country’s requirements do not conflict with another country’s laws.

“The US cannot keep terrorists outside its borders without the close consultation of governments and airlines” foreign and domestic. “And we cannot keep terrorists off planes without the good work of governments. The events of Christmas Day remind us of this fact,” according to Bisignani. “We agree on the importance of a next- generation checkpoint that combines technology and intelligence so we look for bad people and not only for bad objects.”

IATA and DHS will hold a follow-up meeting in the coming weeks.

“Coming to our offices to engage IATA and our 230 member airlines, representing 93% of scheduled traffic, is an impressive demonstration of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s commitment to engage industry and find workable and effective solutions. This is a major step in the right direction,” he concluded.