Aviation Security Association Praises President Bush's Proposal for Comprehensive Airline Safety.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2001

The Aviation Security Association today "enthusiastically welcomed" the new airport security proposals announced by President George W. Bush at an event at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

Kenneth Quinn, counsel for the Aviation Security Association, called the measures "a bold yet sensible step to dramatically improving airport security and rebuilding public confidence in air travel."

"It's high time to remove the airlines from the front lines in the war against terrorism," Quinn said," and bring together the best of public and private sector security professionals to do the job." Quinn noted that governments in Europe and the Middle East long ago recognized that direct oversight and standard-setting of security companies provides the most effective and efficient security system. He also noted that in the U.S., security responsibility lies solely with the airlines, and security companies to date have not been regulated or certificated at all by the FAA.

Nationalizing the work force, on the other hand, "would create immediate chaos in the system, bring bureaucracy and personnel restrictions where zero-tolerance accountability is needed, and discard lessons learned in a wide variety of security settings," Quinn stated. Quinn argued that if Congress is interested in raising the professionalism, lowering the turnover, and increasing the wages in the U.S. screening industry, it should adopt European-model best practices, which do not rely on the Federal government to actually perform the screening, but reserve its role to a visible presence at checkpoints, and detailed regulation and enforcement, including rigorous criminal background checks and lengthy training requirements. "The flight to low-cost, high-turnover workforces in the United States was lead by a cost-sensitive, highly competitive airline industry," Quinn stated, "we'd love nothing better than to work to the same high professional standards in the States that we do in Europe, working directly with the governments, not the airlines."

The Aviation Security Association represents the world's largest security companies, which also have aviation security services that are contracted to conduct passenger and baggage screening, along with airport perimeter guards, at the nation's airports.

While the President's plan would transfer the authority of overseeing the screening process from the airline industry to the federal government, it proposes keeping contract screening services in place, but with far tougher standards and more training and resources.

"I believe that Congress, the FAA and other government officials who are tasked with improving airport security will value the expertise that our companies can add in building an improved aviation security system," added Quinn. "Only now are policymakers realizing that most other nations operate airport security through a close government-industry partnership like the plan proposed by President Bush." Quinn finally noted that, based on the evidence known to date, "absolutely no evidence linking these hijackings to a breakdown in the security screening function itself existed." The problem appeared to be poor intelligence, poor communication, and poor specifications for weapons of a size and kind not declared illegal at the time.