"PM: Nassau airport security is 'critical'"

Monday, May 14, 2007

PM: Airport security is 'critical'
By SAM SMITH
The Bahamas - The Nassau Guardian


Tourism is down in The Bahamas. So is security at the nation's busiest
airport, but at least one of those is going to change - soon. 

Referring to security at Lynden Pindling International Airport as a
"critical issue," which has already obtained his administration's "focused
attention," Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham effectively said what many have
known for years: Security at The Bahamas' busiest airport stinks. 

Airport security topped Cabinet's priorities since the ministers were sworn
in last week, Ingraham said at his first press conference as prime minister,
visually emphasizing the urgency by sitting beside Minister of Tourism and
Aviation Neko Grant (MP-elect for Lucaya Grand Bahama) on a small sofa in
the Churchill Building. 

Grant did not go into many specifics on the security breaches at the
Caribbean's fourth-busiest airport, referring to the information as
"delicate;" but in an apparent dig at the ousted Perry Christie
Administration, he did say Bahamians could expect improvements in security
"within a reasonable period of time." 

Tourists are fickle, and nothing scares them away like the travel warnings
issued when the U.S. State Department believes American lives might be in
danger. 

And while passenger safety remains the obvious concern of a porous airport,
another - and less-frequently discussed - consequence of chronic security
breaches is a downgrade of the airport's rating. 

Grant said his ministry will be working hard to ensure that Nassau's
airport, which served more than three-million passengers last year, remains
in good standing when Ingraham interjected to offer reassurance to the
public that passengers should feel safe. 

Airport security has many facets, from passenger screening to baggage
handling to clearance levels for employees. 

While passenger screening can be slow at the airport; for the most part,
it's effective. Greater concerns have arisen over the relative ease of
getting "airside" - a self-evident name for that large part of the airport
behind check-in terminals and baggage claims where airplanes taxi along
runways and bags bounce along in carts. 

Two now-infamous examples of security breaches are the baggage handlers who
were arrested for smuggling drugs into the United States and a pilot for
local carrier Western Air, who is police's primary suspect in the theft of a
19-seat airplane. 

According to police reports, the perpetrator was able to walk onto the
runway, start a twin-prop plane and fly to another continent without being
stopped by security. 

Security is a touchy issue for carriers out of Nassau, whose passengers have
endured increasingly long lines at passenger-screening areas and who have
been calling on the new airport management company YVRAS to not only give
the airport the facelift they have promised but also to do something about
security. 

Locking down Pindling International was not a specific part of the Canadian
airport management group's charter; and some staff around the airport have
expressed skepticism because of the relatively minor visible progress at the
airport. 

Airport security represented a thorny issue between former U.S. Ambassador
John Rood and now-Opposition leader Perry Christie's government, notably
after a January inspection of Nassau International found hundreds of
violations of the American Transportation Security Administration's
standards. 

In another dig at the former PLP administration, Ingraham said he would be
revisiting "plans we left behind five years ago for the development of the
Nassau airport." 

Ingraham said he has not yet met with YVRAS, whose specialty is cosmetic
upgrades and management, not security, but said he has plans to meet with
them sometime around the end of this month after Cabinet has had an
opportunity to familiarize itself with the contracts signed between the PLP
government and the Canadian concern.

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