You are here: Home » Areas of Activity » Safety & Security » Security » Security and Facilitation Principles

The following five principles and recommendations were presented to the heads of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICAO and member airlines at the Security Summit held in Geveva on 22 January 2010.

Five Recommendations:

During the meeting, IATA and the member airlines present made the following five recommendations:

• Recommendation 1 - Formal continuous consultation with all airlines
  Good cooperation between government and industry will ensure that policies are written with the benefit of airline operational expertise. IATA advocates the creation of Industry Consultation Bodies for aviation security in every country, and is working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to create model terms of reference.
  
  
• Recommendation 2 - Align emergency orders with industry's execution capabilities
  Security measures must be consistent with airlines' operational realities. Regulators need to recognize that prescriptive, one-size-fits-all regulations with numerical targets will not secure a complex industry. Airlines have a role to play in defining practical measures to implement the security objectives set by governments.
  
  
• Recommendation 3 - Eliminate inefficiencies in passenger data collection
  Passenger data collection systems (such as API and PNR) must become more efficient with sharing of data among government agencies. IATA has urged DHS to break down internal silos to create a single data collection and sharing program that could serve as a model for implementation by other governments.
  
  
• Recommendation 4 - Governments must talk to each other to harmonize requirements 
  Governments must talk to each other to ensure that one country’s requirements do not conflict with another country’s laws. We must use ICAO more effectively on security issues to develop consistent security policies and spread best practices. Issuing security measures without proper consultation with interested parties can lead to severe operational and economic consequences for industry and for travellers. A balance should be struck between the understandable need for speed of action, and consideration for the consequences of that action.
  
  
• Recommendation 5 - Develop a next generation checkpoint
  We need screening systems that focus on finding bad people, not just bad objects, combining technology and intelligence. The key lies in leveraging all the passenger information provided by governments before the start of the trip, including by immigration, customs and security authorities. This overview must then be analyzed by intelligence agencies. Detailed results of the passenger's vetting will be made known to screeners at the checkpoint, determining whether a more thorough physical search is warranted or not. The end result is a stronger and more efficient checkpoint. Read about IATA's vision for seamless airport processing: Security - Tunnel of technology in the December issue of Airlines International.

The Five Recommendations are in line with IATA's Strategy for Security & Facilitation.