Air Transport Watchdog Hopes More Up-front Baggage Handling Checks Will Cut Security Costs

With the amount of unaccompanied baggage carried on aircraft rising substantially

, IATA is aiming to ensure that improvements in air cargo security which have been achieved since 2001 can be built upon further.

It believes the main way of doing this is to treat cargo handling as an integrated function, and allow it to be governed by a single set of rules, applied equally across all countries and territories.

IATA has devised a concept called Secure Freight, which lays down a set of basic requirements to ensure cargo security, alongside which low-cost, low-tech methods can be applied to achieve the same aim.

These requirements were incorporated into the latest version of the Cargo Services Conference Recommended Practice documents, but before they are applied internationally, they are first being tested in Malaysia, where the Secure Freight concept will be rigorously tested.

The most important change is that the documents require freight consignments to be made secure as far up the supply chain as possible, and for these security measures to be protected at every subsequent step along the chain.

IATA believes that, by securing all packages and consignments as early as possible in their journey, any intervention needed further along the journey is likely to be cheaper and easier to implement. It has estimated that by making all luggage as secure as possible as early as possible, and encouraging passengers and businesses to play their part in ensuring this is done, could save the airline industry up to $650million a year.

And because this cost is currently met mainly by the industry and its customers (i.e. air passengers and companies sending goods by air freight), any savings could be passed on to them, in the form of cheaper fares and lower cargo charges.

In the Malaysian pilot scheme, companies involved in transporting goods by air at all levels including regulators, airport authorities, airlines, freight forwarders and shippers are all being encouraged to take part, and to comment on how the scheme affects their work.

If the trial proves successful, there are hopes that more advance checking of accompanied and unaccompanied baggage transported on all types of aircraft can be extended. IATA feels that this should meet little opposition, as it will be in many parties interest to be able to demonstrate that security is being addressed at the earliest possible stage in a bag or packages journey.

by: Bob Brightside

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