Airport security to dominate agenda at ICAO talks in March
The UN agency that oversees global aviation will focus on airport security at a meeting in March in light of the recent terrorist attack that brought down a Russian airliner in Egypt, a top official said on Monday.
Olimuyiwa Benard Aliu of Nigeria, council president of the International Civil Aviation Organization, said some countries need to do a better job addressing security challenges, including “insider threats” from airport staff, airline employees and others who have access to aircraft.
While most member countries meet high standards, “sometimes we do find there are deficiencies here and there,” he told reporters following the opening of a threeday aviation forum on the economic contribution of global aviation.
“The whole essence is to put in place mechanisms to assist the members states in addressing those challenges.”
Aliu said ICAO will implement recommendations of an investigation being conducted into the Oct. 31 explosion aboard the Russian plane that killed 224 people. The Islamic terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility, saying it planted a bomb aboard the aircraft.
“If there are specific recommendations that we need to pay attention to you can be rest assured that we will take action immediately,” Aliu said.
Aliu said 2014 was the safest year on record for commercial aviation and the sector wants to maintain that standard to ensure travellers continue to have confidence in airline travel, a big contributor to global economic activity.
Aviation generates US$2.4 trillion in economic activity annually supporting 58 million jobs, including 8.5 million direct employment.
The number of passengers is expected to more than double to six billion over the next 15 years, while more than half the 1.1 billion tourists who crossed international borders last year did so by air.