Despite threat, airlines not spending enough on security

Mumbai:Despite airlines being top terror targets and despite repeated warnings from Indian security agencies, airlines continue to cut costs on security bills with impunity.
"The amount spent on security comes to only about 0.75% to 1% of the total operating costs or about $70 (around Rs 2,900) a flight," a highly placed airline security official said. " The expenditure on security will go up to only $100 a flight (a little less than Rs 4100) if the minimum security measures recommended by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) are followed," he added. Peeved by the airlines' lackadaisical handling of the matter, the BCAS called a meeting of aviation industries' top bosses in May this year and issued a circular stating that the recommendations should be "strictly implemented".
That was in May. But nothing has changed despite the UK-terror expose and the numerous security threats to flying. None of the airlines is in a mood to spend that extra $ 25.
The violations cover high-risk areas. Airlines, for instance, do not have even a single security personnel to guard the idle Boeings and Airbuses; they do not have any one posted in the area where check-in baggage is segregated for different destinations; pre-flight, anti-sabotage checks are hardly carried out in accordance with the details in the security manuals.
Time-saving measures adopted by the airlines mean they completely do away with a certificate of security that should be given to a commander when the aircraft is being handed over to him.
05/07/07 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: General Aviation Jul 2007, Safety Jul 2007