Industry must prepare now for future terror alerts, say experts
Industry leaders have called on the government, UK airport operators and the travel trade to put contingency plans in place now to prepare for future incidents like the recent terror alert.
“We need to assume that this will happen again,” said ABTA head of corporate affairs Keith Betton.
” I know that BAA is having a major rethink about how it handles this type of incident. We need to prepare now.”
Karen Gee, sales and marketing director for WA Shearings, said the days after August 10, when police foiled a major terror plot, demonstrated how unprepared the airports were.
“There clearly isn’t any kind of emergency procedure put in place. It felt like panic. Travellers need to feel there is a process that will click into place, that a button will be pressed and the action scaled up or down.”
Andy Cooper, director general of the FTO, said it was also up to the industry to play its part.
“We as an industry have got to get a lot slicker at getting people through the airports, whether it’s by encouraging online check-in or bringing back bag drops at stations like Victoria and Paddington.
“We’ve always shied away from it, but it’s something we need to address.”
But, he also argued that the government should shoulder some of the costs of airport security.
“It isn’t entirely an aviation issue. Some of the security in place is for national security, and shouldn’t that be borne by the government?” he asked.
“We are dumped with a cost that isn’t really ours. This doesn’t happen with any other mode of public transport, and aviation is, after all, a form of public transport.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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