British Airways chairman Martin Broughton has told the aviation industry that airport checks such as removing shoes and inspecting laptops are a waste of time and simply pandering to the US need for heightened security.
Broughton called many of the checks “redundant” and said Britain was “kowtowing” to the Americans during a speech at the UK Airport Operators Association in London.
According to reports in the Financial Times, Broughton called for some security checks to be dumped, saying no such checks were carried out on internal US flights.
He said: “America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn’t stand for that. We should say, ‘we’ll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential.’ ”
“We all know there’s quite a number of elements in the security programme which are completely redundant and they should be sorted out.”
He added: “Take the iPad, they still haven’t decided if it is a laptop or it isn’t a laptop. So some airports think you should take it out and some think you shouldn’t."
During the conference the chairman also accused the government of putting politics before the good of the country when it decided not to allow a third runway at Heathrow.
He said: “It is really sad that politics has overcome economic sense. London needs runway three. Nobody who is in business disagrees with that, Britain needs it.
“But there were too many votes in that area and so they sacrificed what was in the best interests of London and the country.”
* Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that British Airways may be facing a fine of up to £70 million in an alleged cargo fixing episode.
It is thought the European Commission will announce fines in November after an EU and US Department of Justice raid on a variety of airlines four year ago.
by Dinah Hatch
