IATA wants queue-free airport security
IATA has said it wants to eliminate queues at airport security checkpoints by the end of the decade.
Speaking at the IATA Ops Conference in Vienna this week, the association’s Director-General & CEO, Tony Tyler, said IATA is focused on implementing its ‘Checkpoint of the Future Roadmap’, trials of which have already commenced at Geneva, London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airports.
The scheme includes pre-screening passengers via their PNR data, biometric data verification at checkpoints and explosive detection as an alternative to traditional scanning methods. This year, IATA is planning 10 trials that will support roll-out of the first advanced security checkpoint in 2014. The overall aim is that by 2020, travellers will move through the security checkpoint without waiting in queues.
“We are slowly moving toward the same… alignment on security that we have achieved on safety. But we are not there yet and that concerns me greatly,” Tyler told the conference.
“Passenger numbers have nearly doubled since 2001 and they will likely double again by 2030. The vast majority — probably much more than 99.99999% — of these passengers pose no threat. But we treat them all alike, as we do some of our most trusted employees. This one-size-fits-all prescriptive model for security is not sustainable. If we don’t evolve it, the system will grind to a halt under its own weight; in fact it is already slowing. Before 9/11 the average checkpoint processed 350 passengers per hour. Today it is below 150,” he added.
Tyler went on to call for a “risk-based model” that uses information and data to assess the threat posed by each individual passenger.
“Our vision is that by 2020 travellers will move through the checkpoint without standing in line, removing outerwear or unpacking laptops and liquids,” Tyler concluded.