Bizav Airport Security
Robert Coppinger
The exemplary service expected of business aviation by high calibre travellers includes rapid passage to and from the airside and kerbside and as executive airports grow in number in the region there is an opportunity for government, operator partnerships to find the best combination of security and service.
It is no surprise to anyone that the Middle East is, bar Asia, the fastest growing region for executive travel. As well as its own strong historic links with Europe the region has a key geographical location that makes it a natural hub for those travelling eastward from the mature economies of the west or from the eastern super powers of India and China to the west.
“I don’t doubt [the region will see] continued growth,” Donald Spruston, International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) director general said. “Al Bateen [executive airport] will probably be the first of many,” he predicted. For Spruston as the region’s commercial international airports become increasingly saturated business aviation airports will grow in number.
Certainly the number of business aircraft is expected to grow to 1,330 by 2019 and the number of business aircraft movements are forecast to rise to 160,000 by 2018. Business aviation in the region is currently valued at US$493 million and that is expected to grow to over US$1 billion by 2018. In July Al Bateen airport announced that the first half of 2011 saw almost a 40% growth in private jet movements versus the same period last year.
One company already at Al Bateen, a former military airbase that has become commercial, is Falcon Aviation Services. It is a founding member of the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA). Its vice president business development and strategy is A. J. Baker. He told MEBAA, “a commercial hub is often focused on servicing large commercial aircraft which generate passenger and aircraft movements on a different scale. The priorities for somebody flying a private jet are safety, security, privacy and time. A dedicated business aviation airport offers all of the above.”
It is because of this difference in scale that executive airports do apply the internationally required security procedures but can make the experience a personal one that meets the service expectations of the high calibre traveler. Worldwide the regulatory framework for those internationally required security standards, rules, policies and procedures is the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Security comes under Annex 17 of ICAO’s convention for international standards and recommended practices.
Its provisions include the need for business aviation operators to have a security programme consistent with the risks inherent in their operations. There is a clear need for effective partnership between operators and governments. This begins with fees for the use of police, other security personnel, immigration and custom officers and their equipment, which the private terminals or executive airport buildings need to house. Security programmes should, according to ICAO, be developed in accordance with industry standards that are recognized by government’s security agencies.
The opportunity with this partnership then is for security agencies to recognise that business aviation airports will allow for a more efficient operation than large commercial airports. Where governments and operators can innovate is in meeting those high security standards while not inconveniencing the special customers.
Spruston points out that, “There are vast differences in how corporations use their business aircraft, so a prescriptive one size fits all regulation not only is onerous but does not provide for the level of security needed by many corporations.”
Baker explains that Al Bateen owner Abu Dhabi Airports Company “has a lean, effective and very pro active management team that enjoys an excellent relationship with the security services and the operators who use them. But it’s not only about security, the quality of service at the airport has to be amazing as the passenger profile is very different to that of a commercial hub airport.”
Not that this can not be achieved within the grounds of commercial airports. Where possible private terminals can be located on airport grounds where they avoid the vast flows of humanity that have to be managed at the main terminals of the likes of Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle.
Jet Aviation is one such company with a private terminal. Its Dubai director is Philippe Gerard, “We have our own terminal, our own facility. We are opposite to [Dubain International’s] main terminal. Security is no different, it is tough, we screen everything.”
While procedures for passengers can be designed to meet the necessary security standards and accommodate a high class service, security with regards to ground staff and crew will remain very stringent. It does not have to deal with the time constraint, the swift service customers demand.
Jet Aviation’s Gerard said, “For ground staff and crew recruitment is a tough process, 15 days to three weeks to process with the police and airport authority.” And on a day to day basis it is no easier. Moving from the airside and back all employees still have to go through the scanning machines every time.
While more appropriate national policies and procedures are welcome the industry is challenged by the wide variety of rules that different governments have. All this regulation has a training cost for crews. Some rules are not so burdensome. For example, in Europe a passenger’s car can be brought to the aircraft but not in other regions. In the Middle East cars can meet aircraft but they are airport or operator owned cars that will whisk passengers to immigration. While in regions such as Africa deplaning and reaching the kerbside is a simpler affair.
It is the variety in the other more substantive procedures that have to be followed that leads to more training for crews and therefore more cost. Airlines have crew that fly to regular destinations, the number and scope of the rules they encounter are limited. But executive flight services could be travelling anywhere from one week or day to the next.
Because of this IBAC is encouraging international harmonization in accordance with the ICAO Annex 17 standards. Fortunately the world is not 193 United Nations recognized countries each with their own interpretation of ICAO standards. In this domain the economic behemoths that are the USA and European Union loom large. Their regulation is adopted by many countries. Australia’s business aviation industry, for example, follows the European Aviation Safety Agency.
The US government’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is expected to propose rule changes later this year. “It will take a while. It’s been delayed by a year. We’re not expecting a notice until late fall [October],” said Spruston. The proposed changes were first issued two years ago, under notice 2008-0021, and it resulted in 7,000 responses, according to Spruston. For IBAC the notice contained many onerous provisions.
Perhaps the most surprising and which could also apply to aircraft flying to and from other regions, is the suggestion that non-commercial aircraft have to have air Marshalls. Executive travelers may also be inconvenienced by the prohibited items list that has been proposed. It includes items that Spruston says do not need to be banned for aircraft with a weight of less than 100,000lb. Then for the operator expecting to do business with the US the background checks and mandatory audit programme would, for IBAC, be both onerous and costly.
Security policies and procedures will change over time, government proposals are inevitable. For business aviation the challenge will be to maintain a very high level of service for the executive traveler, even when ever greater levels of scrutiny and potentially invasive security is believed to be mandatory by some governments.
For the private terminals and executive airports, minimizing airside to kerbside travel time will be key. As Baker points out, “a passenger could be airborne within 10 minutes of stepping out of his or her car,” and those high caliber customers will want to do just that.