CANCUN -- Concern that the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security could expand its ban on carry-on electronic devices to include flights
from Europe, and perhaps beyond, emerged as a unifying theme at the IATA Annual
General Meeting here last week.
In testimony before Congress last week, Department of
Homeland Security secretary John Kelly said the agency is considering expanding
the ban of large carry-on electronic devices (laptops and tablets) to inbound
U.S. flights from 71 airports around the world.
To fend off such an action, the airline industry is
promising a coordinated effort to develop security-related alternatives to a
ban.
Alexandre de Juniac
"We need to get security right," IATA director
general Alexandre de Juniac said in his keynote speech at the conference. "There
is a clear duty to make sure that the measures are logical, effective and
efficient. That is not the case with the current ban, and it must change."
The existing bans, which were separately put into effect by
the U.S. and the U.K. in late March, forbid carry-on electronics larger than a
cellphone on flights from selected Middle Eastern and North African countries.
The U.S. and U.K. said the ban is based on intelligence
about the potential for terrorists to turn laptops and other devices into
bombs.
However, the fact that the specific countries subject to the
ban differ between the U.S. and the U.K. has stoked doubts both within and
outside the airline industry about the edicts.
IATA estimates that the bans, as they exist now, will impact
4.8 million passengers annually on 17,000 flights. The cost in lost passenger
work productivity, airline delays and extra airline handling expenditures would
be $198 million, IATA said.
If the bans were expanded to include flights from Europe to
the U.S., those costs would rise to $1.2 billion, on 142,000 annual flights.
And if the ban were to be imposed worldwide, it would impact 786,000 flights
annually at an estimated cost in productivity and direct expense of $3.4
billion.
While the data is still too scant for certainty, IATA
believes the electronics ban has already impacted traffic from the Middle East
to the U.S., which dropped 2.8% in March. That was the first year-over-year
monthly decline reported for the U.S.-Middle East market in at least seven
years.
On the IATA general meeting's first day, the trade body
passed a resolution urging nations, member airlines and other aviation industry
stakeholders to work together on aviation security. The resolution also called
for governments to engage in early dialogue with the airline industry as it
considers new security measures. De Juniac had previously been critical of the
U.S. and the U.K. for not consulting with the industry ahead of imposing the
carry-on electronics ban.
During a press briefing at the conference, IATA director of
security Matthew Vaughan and Nick Careen, the organization's senior vice
president of airport, passenger and cargo security, laid out IATA's alternative
vision to deal with concerns about explosive devices in electronics.
In the immediate term, Vaughan and Careen called for
expanded use of explosive trace detection equipment at airports, which can
detect trace amounts of bomb-making materials on people's hands or clothing.
They also called for the expanded use of anti-tampering
analysis of electronic devices, for increasing the amount of training for
security screeners on detecting explosives in electronic devices and for
increasing the deployment of explosive detection dogs as well as officers
trained in behavioral detection. Finally, IATA is calling on governments to
more closely screen passenger manifests.
In the long run, IATA is calling for the development and
deployment of next- generation screening technology, a measure that will
require more financial commitment from nations.
In the meantime, the U.N.'s 191-member International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) has established a security panel, which met for
the first time on June 1 and 2, ICAO president Olumuyiwa Aliu said at the IATA
meeting. The group will meet through the summer, with the goal of presenting a
plan to the U.N. Security Council in October.
Attendees of the IATA general meeting, including airline
CEOs, expressed concern that an expanded laptop ban would create more risks
than it would ameliorate due to the dangers of packing dozens of devices that
are fueled by combustible lithium batteries into cargo holds, where fires can't
be detected or squelched as quickly as fires within the cabin.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew said that in an effort to
secure their aircraft, some carriers could react to a carry-on electronics ban
by banning laptops and personal devices entirely.
"I think there will be draconian measures from the
airlines," Bellew said during an IATA panel discussion. "Don't even
come near the airport with your laptop."