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New airport security ‘makes passengers targets’

A TOUGH new security regime at airports is turning queues of passengers into potential terrorist targets, MPs warned today.

The House of Commons Transport Committee said hundreds of travellers crammed into tight spaces could become a security hazard.

The all party group has recommended that speeding up check-in times and baggage clearance to reduce the security queues should be a priority.

They say that the scale of the terror threat was starkly illustrated by the recent attempted car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport.

As millions of travellers fly abroad for their summer holidays, the committee makes a string of recommendations to try and tackle the problem.

Its report says: “Moving passengers more swiftly through to air side will in itself reduce the threat.

“Speeding up check-in times and reducing the security queue should be a priority for airports and airlines.”

Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said: “Because of the necessary measures that are now in place, passengers are finding it more uncomfortable and time consuming to begin their journeys. Security is the issue which currently has the most significant impact on passengers’ experiences of air travel.”

The committee was told by Professor Alan Hatcher, Principal of the International School for Security and Explosives Education, that with bags not being searched when people entered the terminal he was concerned that queues of hundreds of people were effectively creating new targets.

In evidence given before the Glasgow Airport incident, Chris Goater, from the Airport Operators Association, said the view of experts was that the primary terrorist threat is from explosives getting on to aircraft.

The Department for Transport defended its handling of the security threat insisting that aviation was a particular “iconic target” for terrorists.

A spokesman said: “We have made it clear to the aviation industry and in particular the airport operators that better preparations need to be in place as the holiday season gets under way.”

He added that the new baggage rules introduced last August met “a very real threat”.

The spokesman went on: “The Government has already launched a 1.5 million advertising campaign in the national press to remind passengers to ‘arrive prepared’ and, where possible, is introducing changes to help make the security process quicker.

“But we have to be satisfied that any changes will not compromise the safety of passengers.”

The British Airports Authority, which runs seven major airports including Edinburgh, Heathrow and Gatwick, defended its handling of the security issue

It said: “We have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on security and a further 20m after the extra demands were imposed on us. We regularly put our hands in our pockets.”

The committee also made a number of other recommendations including:

Airlines should always advertise additional fees, taxes and charges up front;

there should be a government review of telephone charges for ticket bookings;

the British Airports Authority should cease to be run as a monopoly;

there should be a review of airport car parking charges;

more robust systems are needed to stop the loss and mishandling of baggage.

The committee also complains about British Airways’ confusing baggage rules and says that airlines as a whole try to sidestep European Union rules on compensating passengers for delays and cancellations.

It calls for a flying ban on disruptive passengers. Indian doctor terror charges ‘to be dropped’

A DECISION by Australia’s chief prosecutor to review evidence against an Indian doctor charged over the Glasgow terror attack suggests the case is about to collapse, an independent legal expert said today.

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg said yesterday that he was reviewing the case against Mohammed Haneef who is charged with supporting a terror organisation in connection with the attack.

Mr Bugg’s review comes amid criticism that Haneef’s case has been mishandled and that the evidence is weak, although he has given no reason for the review.

But prominent lawyer Peter Faris said the move suggested the charge could be dropped within days. “I have no doubt that the reason that Bugg has intervened is to find a way out of the impasse,” Mr Faris said.

“To put it bluntly, they have no case.”

“I would be fairly confident that the charges will be dropped probably tomorrow, if not tomorrow, Monday,” he said.

Haneef, 27, was arrested on July 2 at Brisbane international airport.