British Airways Chairman Gives Airport Security Speech

According to British Airways chairman Sir Martin Broughton, a pilot and Yemeni student shouldn’t be subjected to the same security checks at airports. The airline boss is calling for lanes that have light security checks for trusted frequent flyers. He was also critical of US checks required for passengers travelling from the UK to the US after seeing a British Airways board member be selected for additional screening. Well-known celebrities and infants get picked out as well, he noted.

All of this came in a speech to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) in London. Sir Broughton is calling for a risk-based approach to security instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. He questioned if it’s sensible to run the same security checks on pilot and Yemeni student. Some would say this is profiling, which he says some regard as a negative term with discriminatory overtones. He believes that making everyone suffer inconvenience for uniformity doesn’t make sense at all and only cuts the quality of security by depleting resources.

These remarks come after Sir Martin criticised the checks, which have increased around the world since the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked with hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, at a conference in October. He believes many of the checks are redundant. To argue his case for a risk-based security approach, he says customs pay more attention to flights from Jamaica than Saudi Arabia, because history shows that drugs are more likely to come from there. Another example was the US Global Entry System, which he praised. The system allows passengers that have passed a series of checks to pass through immigration queues faster for a $100 charge. He believes the same principle can be extended to airport security lines to allow trusted frequent travellers to pass through faster. This suggestion is being reviewed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

If anyone is to be allowed light security checks it should be flight crew, Sir Broughton says. They should be the ultimate trusted traveller, as they don’t need a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to cause damage if that’s what they wanted to do, he explained.

He also criticised US officials for failing to ease passenger concerns and boost airport traffic flows as promised. US cargo rules requiring extra checks on goods bound for the US and security measures imposed on incoming passengers more than Americans were slammed as well. He noted that the 9/11 incident was entirely internal and didn’t involve foreigners entering the country. However, Sir Broughton criticised authorities in the UK too, for not backing new screening machines that would have allowed laptops to remain in bags. Instead, he says other rules were made, creating a disgraceful waste of time and effort.