IATA announces shake up of airport security

New system is aimed at finding bad people rather than bad things.

Travel Insurance News - 16/12/2010

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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced plans to introduce a new airport security system that will replace the existing slow and often intrusive passenger security checks with a new system targeted at detecting ‘bad people’ rather than bad objects.

IATA, an industry body that represents most of the world’s airlines as well as the general airline industry, unveiled the plan on Tuesday. An initial version of the proposed system could be active within two or three years if the world’s governments support it.

The plan proposed by IATA calls for the use of ‘security tunnels’. Depending on profiles using biometric data and flight booking information, travellers would be directed into one of three security tunnels.

Giovanni Bisignani, the director general of IATA, said the existing system treats all travellers the same and forces them all to undergo the same security procedure, which can be slow and intrusive. He said airport security needs to be capable of spotting bad people rather than bad objects.

Speaking to the media at IATA headquarters in Geneva, Bisignani said that by assessing travellers for risk and following this up with appropriate security checks, a new security system would be able to find the bad people. The plan was announced at the IATA’s annual media briefing.

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