"India rejects US move to security audit all airports"

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

India rejects US move to security audit all airports
The Times of India


NEW DELHI - India has rejected US' proposal to conduct a security audit of
all Indian airports before allowing free air connectivity between the
nations. Refusal notwithstanding, government officials said US has agreed to
ink the open-skies agreement with India next month.

"US authorities wanted to conduct a complete security audit of our airports
before allowing Indian carriers free access to the US market. Security is an
internal issue and India has rejected this proposal," an official said.

"But this rejection will have no bearing on liberalising air travel between
India and US," official said, adding both countries have agreed on broad
parameters.

US security audit proposal was not restricted to international gateway
airports of India. Officials said US wanted to audit all airports across the
country.

This comes in the wake of the US Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) examining use of radio frequency identification tagged airline
boarding passes that could allow passenger tracking within airports across
the globe.

Privacy advocates have termed this proposal a potentially "outrageous"
violation of civil liberties.

Meanwhile, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said liberalised Indo-US air
services agreement will help improve air links and reduce fares on the
India-US route.

"Previous restriction on the number of US cities that Indian carriers can
operate to, has been removed. Market is now open to Indian carriers. Even US
carriers will have free access to Indian cities," Patel said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************