Aviation Security

[airbusthreetwenty]

Like many travellers I've sometimes been subjected to the third degree at Australian airports, had my bags opened and searched then scanned for traces of explosive, my pockets turned inside out and my shoes X-rayed. Yet on more than one occasion I've seen my bags pass through X-ray with the official on duty not even watching the monitor. Security can depend on whim at the best of times.

As aviation experts held a big security pow wow in Sydney last week, up popped news about a straw poll suggesting Australians are divided on the effectiveness of measures taken at our airports. How do your thoughts compare? Security screening is surely a thankless and repetitive task, prone to isolated moments of boredom and distraction. But there is no foolproof alternative, just a process that gets ever more complicated.

Keynote speaker at the AVSEC conference was Kip Hawley of the US Department of Homeland Security, who later gave this interview in which he talks about the need for airport security to be at once "pro-active" and "flexible" yet, at the same time, not impinge unduly on the privacy of travellers. This sounds an extremely difficult formula to balance with any success, especially with the advent of intrusive fingerprint and eyeball ID, face-recognition techniques and the contentious no-fly watch list. Hawley also mentions that, from next month, EU countries will join the UK, US and Canada and impose a partial liquids ban on air passengers.

# Sydney Airport has been ranked in the Top Ten international airports for business travel. Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Aiport ranked highest in terms of perceived security and safety.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/lostintransi...ecurity_1.html


Be sure to leave comments on this blog letting them know our feelings on aviation security in our airports.