Airline bosses slam airport ID card plan
03.07.08
Bosses at the UK's major airlines have attacked plans to force airport workers to enrol in the national ID card scheme, claiming that ‘the UK aviation industry is being used for political purposes on a project which has questionable public support,’ The Register reports. They say the move could reduce security by adding a ‘false sense of security to our processes.’
In a letter sent to home secretary Jacqui Smith via the British Air Transport Association, the bosses of airlines including British Airways, Virgin, bmi and easyJet, the MDs and CEOs of several airports and the general secretary of airline union BALPA express their ‘determined opposition’ to the proposal.
They say that the plan will add extra processes, costs and risks to ‘an already comprehensive system of identity and record checks’, and airside staff ‘are already the subject of extremely thorough vetting and criminal records checks.’ ID cards add nothing to this, they say.
They call for the home secretary to 'junk the cards' and shift ‘the priority for Government attention to the improved efficiency of border processes which would result in a more reliable operation and better levels of service for the travelling public.’
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
