With terror threats on the rise globally, the need to enforce tougher security procedures on planes was the focus of an International Civil Aviation Organisation conference in Cairo this week, reports Amira Ibrahim With security procedures already representing a significant burden for air carriers and airports, will the current need for ever-more stringent policies have a negative effect on the air transport industry? That was one of the topics being discussed at an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conference being held in Cairo over the past ten days, and attended by representatives from more than a hundred countries. With increasingly complex inspection procedures being implemented by airports and airlines since 9/ 11, human rights groups have been highlighting passengers' gripes regarding mistreatment, which sometimes seem to have a racial tinge. Conference participants agreed that while terrorism is air transport and civil aviation's enemy number one, many also said they were worried that excessive security procedures would end up damaging the industry as a whole. "We have to resist together the tendency by some governments to adopt certain procedures with passengers and to restrict the movement of aircrafts among airports," said ICAO President Assad Kottaite. Kottaite said these procedures would only help in the fight against terrorism if "we succeed in establishing an efficient international security network on a global basis," rather than just by securing one country or another. Kottaite, however, refused to deal with issues like the mistreatment of passengers at airports as a result of increased security. "We are here to discuss security," Kottaite told the Weekly. "However, let me say that mistreating passengers is considered a violation of ICAO regulations and any case reported to us is recorded, and all member states notified about the violation. That is all. We are not authorised to take any action against the country in which the violation was reported," he said. The conference featured delegates from the organisation's 100 member countries, who produced some 100 papers, most of which focused on security procedures and measures to facilitate passenger movement within a tighter security atmosphere. Egypt's paper dealt with some of the more recent developments on the Egyptian airport scene. Aviation Minister Ahmed Shafiq told Al-Ahram Weekly that a high-level committee including the interior ministry and aviation authorities is currently negotiating with a number of international companies that manufacture security systems, to provide Egyptian airports, as well as the national carrier, with the most advanced security equipment available. A three-day exhibition highlighted some of the world's most advanced aviation security technologies, including biometrics, which use "eye prints" to identify document holders, machine readable passports and travel document inspection machines. Maj. Gen. Magdi El-Wazeri, the head of the aviation ministry's security committee, told the Weekly that Egyptian airports had recently been equipped with 100 advanced screening machines to inspect passengers and luggage. El-Wazeri said countries had to deal with security concerns even if those sometimes appeared to be exaggerated. "In this regard we are ready to provide all our planes with armed marshals, in case of emergencies," he said. The US delegates spent much of the conference trying to mobilise global approval of security procedures it has already applied. The US requested that ICAO allow any country to request more information than that which was contained in a standard flight plan. The US also asked ICAO to classify radio frequency identification (RFID) baggage tags as a significant tracking tool for both normal and special checked baggage. It also called on member states to actively pursue the transition from barcode compliant baggage tags to RFID tags. Maj. Gen. Maged El-Masry, head of the Egyptian Aviation Information Technology (AVIT) company that is responsible for the design of Egyptian airports' technology networks, said "ICAO had previously required member states to issue machine readable passports by 2006, but this was later changed to 2010. The leeway was provided for all countries to seek regional or international assistance with logistic or operational problems associated with their machine readable passport systems." El-Masry said Egypt was "working at present to apply all ICAO standards at Egyptian airports, and we are determined to complete it on time."
