Still on the “Freighters” conference, the emission discussion almost eclipsed the far more serious consequences, which the 100 per cent screening of cargo will have on the industry.
As reported on the “FAPAA” pages in this issue, neither the airlines nor the freight forwarders are even close to grasping the implications of the 100 per cent ruling, which in the next three years will not only affect the cargo industry, but ultimately international trade as well.
While the US has already adopted a law, which sort of regulates security measures involving air cargo, the Europeans are about to introduce a similar law which, generally speaking, will force airlines to screen all cargo that is loaded on passenger planes and freighters.
Like the emission issue, the collective airline and cargo industry has grossly underestimated the politics behind the security programmes, in particular in the US where the Democrats, who are facing the prospect of winning the presidential elections in 2008, have pushed through a fl awed and ambiguous security bill. Initial efforts by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to lessen the impact of 100 per cent screening – and thus save the industry millions of dollars in acquiring x-ray machines that do not exist at this moment, plus avoiding the total disruption in air cargo transport – have already been shot down by politicians, who insist that cargo must be screened the same way passenger luggage is.
Representative Edward J. Markey