"Australia: No immediate plan to ban family from departure lounges"

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Fed/ No immediate plan to ban family from departure lounges
The Australian Associated Press


CANBERRA, AAP - The federal government had no immediate plans to ban family
and friends from the departure lounges of domestic flights, it said today.
But the move was under consideration as a way of tightening airport
security. The government has flagged the idea to allow only ticket holders
into departure areas to close the net on potential terrorists. A spokesman
for Transport Minister John Anderson said restricting domestic departure
lounges to ticketholders was under consideration. "But there is no plan at
this stage to introduce it," he said. "It hasn't been considered by the
minister nor the government as a whole, it may happen or it may not." A
crackdown in airport and aircraft security follows a number of breaches this
year including a man armed with two sharpened wooden stakes who allegedly
tried to hijack a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Launceston. The Qantas
domestic terminal at Sydney Airport was locked down after three elderly
passengers entered a secured zone and a man was arrested after brandishing a
Stanley knife on board a Virgin Blue flight from Sydney to Cairns.


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