Security checks at Egyptian airports are set to go high-tech, reports Amirah Ibrahim Eight airports across Egypt will soon be getting a new security system as part of a major project being undertaken by the state-based Airports Holding Company. Ibrahim Mannaa', head of the holding company, announced the project this week during a press conference explaining how the contract for the new system was granted to Global SITA INC (Information Networking Computing), a US firm. In the wake of complaints by two European companies about their offer being turned down in favour of the American firm's bid, Mannaa sought to clear the air of any suspicions. According to Mannaa', "a year ago aviation authorities contacted international IT security service providers about the airport network modernisation project. Five international companies applied. We turned down the best offer after discovering that the company had falsified some of the documents submitted." The Norwegian company being referred to, it turned out, had links with some of the shareholders of a UK-based company that was at the centre of a corruption case currently being investigated. Just two months ago, the prosecutor-general ordered five top aviation officials, including the former head of the dissolved Civil Aviation Authority and five main shareholders of UK-based Malicorp, to be tried on corruption charges. The company allegedly took part in a series of improper actions as it pursued the right to build a BOT airport in Ras Sudr in Sinai, with the help of officials in the former authority, causing an estimated LE6 billion in losses to the nation's aviation industry. Mannaa' said the second-best offer was then pursued. Originally tendered at $7.2 million by a consortium of French companies, when the negotiations over executive procedures began in earnest, Mannaa' said, "we were surprised that the company demanded that either the contract price increase by $350,000, or four main items from the agreed-upon specifications be dropped. After nine months of tough negotiations, we turned down the French offer. The contract then went to the third company, SITA INC," which Mannaa' said also agreed to reduce its offer from $8.2 million to $7.185 million. According to Maged El-Masry, who heads AVIT, an Aviation Ministry-affiliated IT company, SITA INC has already successfully worked with Egypt's aviation sector. "Five years ago, SITA carried out an IT project linking six international airports with a central control unit at the ministry, via a unified information system that controls the movement inside those airports." El-Masry told Al-Ahram Weekly that "two years ago, SITA also provided Cairo International with a $16 million IT system, with updated applications on the field of passengers' services and luggage traffic." El-Masry said that SITA INC and the ministry were working towards "establishing an IT platform that can help the industry become more cost efficient". The new security system, El-Masry said, is not intended as a replacement of the current one. "There are many bodies responsible for securing Egyptian airports, including police, intelligence and other bodies; the new system only expands the umbrella of security facilities. With the use of advanced applications, the eight airports will be monitored and controlled through 10 security and control rooms and nine crisis management rooms; all are connected to a central control room at the Aviation Ministry." The new IT security system will be up and running in 16 months time. Work will begin with Cairo International and Sharm El-Sheikh airports in November, and will then move to airports in Hurghada, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, and finally Alexandria's Borg Al-Arab. "The eight airports will get a new monitoring system, including the installation of systems for baggage and passenger screening, as well as a system to control the movement of employees from one part of the airport to another," El-Masry said. "Cairo international is growing rapidly, and we need to continue to innovate in order to satisfy passengers and airlines alike," said Cairo International Airport boss Fathi Fathallah. "Most of the world's airports are undergoing a huge change in terms of security checks. We have finished upgrading the infrastructure, and are currently constructing a new terminal that will more than double our current capacity, from 8.5 million to 20 million by 2007. We believe that a strong security system can help grow our revenues as well," Fathallah told the Weekly.
