From today's Sunday Times:
EU deal to cover airline risks
David Smith and Michael Prescott
EUROPEAN finance ministers meeting in Liège, Belgium, yesterday, stepped in to head off the immediate crisis in the airline industry.
After Friday's announcement by Gordon Brown that the government would act as guarantor to provide British airlines with insurance cover against third party risk - damage to property and people on the ground - other European Union members agreed on similar measures.
There had been fears that without such cover, initially for 30 days, many airlines would have been grounded this week.
The EU ministers also agreed to speed up ratification of a United Nations resolution calling for a freezing of all Taliban
assets.
In an effort to show that the world economy is operating normally in the wake of Wall Street's worst week since 1933, the Liège meeting announced that the Group of Seven would meet in Washington on October 6. Interest rates in Britain and America are set to fall further before then. The meeting had been scheduled for next weekend but was cancelled.
George W Bush, in his weekly address to the American people, also tried to offer reassurance. "Our economy has had a shock," he said, noting many workers had lost their jobs last week, especially in the airline and tourism businesses. "Yet, for all these challenges, the American economy is fundamentally strong."
The chancellor hinted yesterday that governments were ready to pay for better security at airports and on planes. The British Airline Pilots' Association said extra security was urgent.
"The focus must be on stopping terrorists and preventing disruptive passengers from boarding our aircraft in the first place," said Captain Ian Hibberd, a spokesman. Pilots believe a computer system to check the names and profiles of passengers would be more effective than strengthened cockpit doors or guards.
Airline ticket computers would be linked to a central database on which the names of terrorist suspects could be entered, as well as profiles of "unusual" passengers. El Al, the Israeli airline, uses passenger profiling to identify potential troublemakers before they board flights.