"Security costs would threaten Australian regional airports"

Thursday, September 4, 2003

Security costs would threaten Aust regional airports/ Tongue
The Australian Associated Press


CANBERRA, - The cost of extending metropolitan airport security to regional
Australia would shut down country terminals, the head of transport security
said today. But the transport department was considering upgrading regional
airport security in the heightened terrorism environment and how it could be
funded, Transport Security Regulation Group first assistant secretary Andrew
Tongue said. "The challenge we face is that in seeking to move to regional
airports, we would effectively shut them down and that is simply because of
the costs of security," Mr Tongue told a parliamentary inquiry into aviation
security. "We could solve the regional aviation problem by putting security
requirements in and nobody would be flying to regional destinations. "That
is something that we're having a look at at the moment but to go to regional
aviation, somebody has to put their hand in their pockets. "And it's not
going to be the airports that are mostly owned by local councils and it's
not going to be the airlines." The inquiry heard that three security
incidents aboard aircraft in Australia this year involved flights from
regional airports. "The question that we review frequently is: would we
deepen the system and move to address regional airports," Mr. Tongue said.


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