TIACA WANTS INPUT IN SETTING CARGO SECURITY MEASURES
The International Air Cargo Association Tuesday urged the U.D. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration and the European Commission to consult the air cargo industry on security procedures being considered in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
TIACA said it was extending its “knowledge and expertise” of its worldwide membership, in an effort to ensure that “any new security measures are effective, workable, affordable and create the minimum disruption to the flow of air cargo, which essentially relies on speed.”
The air cargo industry was already reeling from a worldwide downturn in trade due to recession in some of the world's traditionally strongest economies.
“Any measures that do not meet these criteria are likely to have a further adverse effect on the recovery of the world economies, which increasingly rely on air transport,” said Larry Coyne, TIACA's president. “War risk insurance is a good example. While the U.K. is sensibly giving carriers that had not previously needed this cover one month to put it in place, the regulators in Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, have applied the rule immediately. This type of instant legislation, which temporarily grounded some flights, causes further hardship for an industry that is already suffering severely.”