CEN Starts Work on New Quality Standard for Airport Security Services
November 7, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
On Nov. 4, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) launched a new project committee - CEN/PC 384, "Airport and aviation security services," to begin developing the quality criteria needed for an airport security and aviation security standard that can be used throughout Europe.
The completion of the new standard is expected in 2011.
Strict airport security checks are common throughout the world. All check-ins include mandatory screening of hand luggage and metal detector scanning for forbidden objects. Increasingly time-consuming, these checks - carried out by the police in the past - are now often handled by private security companies.
However, it is often difficult for purchasers of airport security services, such as airline companies and airport operators, to compare the differing forms of quotations from the various security providers. This means that the deciding factor is often simply financial.
Until now, the quality criteria on which security providers can demonstrate their competence - for instance, their scope of services and the qualification of their staff – have been largely absent. The CEN/PC 384 project aims at addressing this problem.
"With respect to the growing importance of private security services for the overall security of civil aviation, the importance of maintaining common quality standards is growing for providers," said Holger Müehlbauer, secretary of CEN/PC 384.
These criteria will assure the professional qualifications of security service providers. As a consequence, this future European standard should be an important basis for the selection of suitable services, thereby making this market more transparent.
Source: European Committee for Standardization.