On the heels of the latest aviation security scare involving the attempted bombing of a US airliner over Detroit at Christmas, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has urged governments to remain calm.

“It is human nature that each new security incident prompts a desire to introduce yet more security measures,” AAPA said in a statement. “There is always political pressure to react, but this often smacks of the need to be seen to be doing something rather than thinking through the appropriate action to take.”

“It takes real political maturity to remain calm, and not fall into the trap of knee jerk reactions, such as the imposition of new security measures of unproven effectiveness,” AAPA said adding that new security measures can only be justified when it can be demonstrated that the benefits outweigh the additional burdens they impose on society.

“Treating each of the six million passengers who fly every day as potential terrorists and subjecting them to virtual strip searches and pat-downs already borders on the absurd, particularly when compared to our approach to public security in other aspects of our daily lives. Doing so comes at a cost, already measured in tens of billions of dollars annually.”

Rather than focusing on ever more intrusive passenger screening, the key lesson from this, and previous terrorist incidents, is the critical importance of effective intelligence gathering and analysis. Clearly, both inter-agency and inter-governmental cooperation needs to be reinforced.

Commenting on the current state of affairs, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), Andrew Herdman said: “AAPA understands the need to maintain the highest levels of security in air transportation and all airlines are committed to working closely with government security agencies and other stakeholders to ensure that air travel remains safe, secure and convenient. Despite recent events, public confidence in the safety of air travel remains high. Good security is all about comprehensive threat assessment and balanced risk management, not the elimination of every conceivable risk.”

He went on to urge governments to cooperate closely with industry and strive for global harmonisation of aviation security measures, working in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organisation.