S E C U R I T Y
“The Department for
Transport and the
CAA are very keen to
keep the UK regime in
alignment with the EU’s”
Jason Hayward, BBGA FBO workgroup chair
22 | BU S INE S S A I R P O RT INT E RNAT I ONA L JA N UA RY 2 0 2 0
to airports were the need for a strategy video to be made
and a review of how identification badges are issued. Bakr
also believes there is a potential issue at US airports, with
business aviation operations not subjecting passengers,
baggage, cargo or employees to any form of security
screening before gaining access to airport’s secure areas.
“This is a serious vulnerability and can lead to unpleasant
and catastrophic consequences if exploited by bad
individuals,” he warns.
Industry recommendations
The business aviation sector follows its own policies and
guidelines in addition to those set out by regulators and
government. The NBAA recommends best practices See
box to its members. Bakr says, “Access control into airports
and to general aviation facilities airports has been a concern
FBOs providing business aviation
services from airports are
required to follow stringent rules
and procedures, just like their
commercial counterparts –
to defeat the individuals
intent on moving contraband across
borders or harming others. However
despite the appearance of a heavily
regulated and regularly evaluated
industry, the implementation of
internationally agreed policies and
the application of local security
procedures is known by insiders to
vary widely, while publicly available
government data on compliance can
be described as scant.
A fact that allays doubts about
compliance is that no general aviation
(GA) aircraft has ever been used for an act
of terror anywhere in the world, according to
the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).
However, Hany Bakr, security director for Europe, Middle
East and Africa at international SOS company MedAire,
points out that it does not help that there is little or, “no
publicly available information to universally indicate the
degree of vulnerability, between the two different business
models,” of commercial and business aviation.
Bakr also cites another fact – that the absence of any
notable aviation security incidents undermines the case
for investment in security. While investment is not seen
as an immediate need, the industry does come together,
according to Bakr, to exchange ideas, “benchmark and work
towards enhancing their aviation security protocols”.
Government reports about business aviation security
are difficult to find. The UK’s Independent Chief Inspector
of Borders and Immigration annual report for April 2018 to
31 March 2019 makes no references to business airports
or security. Bakr points to a US Government Accountability
Office report from 2011 that reports on an assessment of
US airports and their security improvements,
post-September 11th. The report found that while the
airports have multiple security measures in place, “they
varied,” and also revealed “specific measures in potential
vulnerabilities is varied across all airports,” Bakr explains.
The level of access control for GA facilities at airports was
also a concern raised in the 2011 report.
The last GA security report by the US Government was
produced by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee
(ASAC) in 2017. ASAC’s two recommendations specific
Top: VIPs choose private
aviation to reduce the time
spent in airport security
Below: Secure perimeters and
access control is one of the
fundamental aspects of airport
security