The International Air Transport Association (IATA)'s vision for passenger screening received a number of important endorsements in the last couple of weeks. IATA's Senior Vice President Safety Operations & Infrastructure Guenther Matschnigg presented IATA's vision on the future of aviation security at a high level conference on "Protecting civil aviation against terrorism" organised by the Polish Presidency of the European Union and the European Commission on 27 September 2011, in Brussels. Participants in the high-level panel, together with Matschnigg, included Raymond Benjamin (ICAO secretary general), John Pistole (US Transport Security Administration administrator), Gerard McDonald (assistant deputy minister of Safety and Security at Transport Canada), Mike Mrdak (secretary of the Australian Department of Infrastructure and Transport), Henrik Hololei, (head of Cabinet of the Transport Commissioner at the European Commission). The panelists stressed the necessity for more international coordination and collaboration not only among like-minded countries but also with the industry and ICAO. Participants in the panel committed to strengthen mutual recognition of their security measures, both for passengers and cargo, focussing on the equivalence of their respective measures and not on the implementation of identical measures. John Pistole and Gerard McDonald also strongly supported the IATA initiative and leadership for the development of a Checkpoint of the Future. On 10 August, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John Pistole mentioned during a TV interview that he "strongly endorsed" the Checkpoint of the Future. A statement of principles developed by IATA was officially accepted by Interpol, Nigeria and El Salvador �ê" opening the way to acceptance by more states in the near future. The vision was turned into a physical demonstration showing three tunnels for the three passenger risk profiles: known travellers, normal screening and enhanced security. The three tunnels were first presented to the attendees of the IATA Annual General Meeting held in Singapore from 5-7 June, and was visited by TSA Administrator Pistole.
