IATA urges security cost sharing
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Airlines are still recovering from the SARS outbreak earlier this year.
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(CNN) -- Governments rather than the aviation industry alone must shoulder the financial burden for air transport security, according to the global aviation body IATA.
IATA, the International Air Transport Association, estimates additional security measures for airlines since the September 2001 terror attacks in the United States reached $5 billion in 2002.
"Security is an issue that goes far beyond aviation," IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani told an annual aviation security meeting in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday.
"It is a government responsibility, just like war and peace, and the costs must be assumed by society at large, not just by one industry," he said.
Bisignani said the United States provided $3.2 billion in relief to the aviation industry through a security tax exemption in 2002, but noted that measure has now lapsed.
He said European nations needed to do more, and called on the EU to oblige its member governments to take responsibility for and fund security measures.
Since the September 2001 attacks in the United States, airports and airlines have stepped up security, including more stringent screening of passengers and their luggage.
Airlines have strengthened cockpit doors and allowed some pilots to carry arms. The use of armed marshalls on board passenger aircraft has also increased.
IATA called on nations to work together to find solutions to baggage re-screening for transit passengers, certification and testing of equipment and harmonization of biometric identification for passengers.
Bisignani also urged greater attention for air cargo. He said that with IATA members carrying more than 40 million tons of cargo annually, screeners had to look for alternative ways that would address security concerns without choking business.
Threat of shoulder-fired rockets
The growing threat to aircraft from shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles was also addressed at the Athens meeting. Bisignani said IATA was working with other groups to help develop counter measures.
The November 2002 attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner in Kenya, and the possible use of shoulder-fired missiles in the recent downing of U.S. helicopters in Iraq, has highlighted the urgent need for counter measures in commercial aviation.
Bisignani said a number of countries including the United States, Israel, Australia and the UK were looking at the issue. So far, no solutions aside from the use of on-board systems have been implemented.
In addition to the costs of extra security, the global aviation industry has been hard hit by lower passenger numbers stemming from the war in Iraq and the SARS outbreak earlier this year.
Earlier this month, IATA reported that international passenger traffic in September 2003 was 1 percent above the same month in 2002 -- the first increase since February. But early figures for the first nine months of 2003 are still 4.9 percent below the same period for 2002.
