Airport Management and Internal Security (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1. One of the fundamental objectives of governments worldwide is the ability to effectively manage and control their territories by land, sea and air. The invention of the aircraft by the Wright Brothers in 1903 compounded the complexities involved in the management and control of national territories. This is more so as aircraft operate from airports which need to be properly managed and protected. The success that crowned the Wright Brothers efforts on 17 December 1903 was the invention of a fully controlled self-powered, heavier-than-air machine, which was the first remarkable attempt by man to fly.1 Subsequently, technological developments led to rapid growth in the development of aircraft, aerodrome, aviation infrastructure, and management of these assets became imperative.

2. The development of these assets gave birth to present day airport management and its economic benefits for enhanced internal security. Airport management simply refers to the processes involved in ensuring active planning, coordinating, maintaining, staffing, controlling and managing all airport activities to ensure socio-economic wellbeing, safe and efficient air operations for enhanced internal security. Internal security entails the effective control, management and protection of nation’s borders. It also involves the protection of country’s key and vital assets, economic, political, cultural and military strategies that would promote, preserve and maintain the interest of a nation including its citizens.

3. Globally, the effective management of airport activities in recent times has provided a viable strategy for internal security. As civil and military airport operations grew rapidly after the First World War (WW1), with aircraft flying across international boundaries under different rules and regulations, the problem of airport management and its attendant security challenges became prevalent.2 These security challenges are referred to as accidental/malicious damage, crime, terrorism, and other security threats while methods or techniques used in an effort to protect passengers, staff, aircraft, and airport infrastructure from accidental/malicious harm, crime, terrorism, and other threats is known as airport security. The increase in air transportation necessitated the need to establish relevant bodies to coordinate the management of flights operations at the airports and ensure safety of passengers. The United Kingdom (UK), Hungary, Germany and France established regulating agencies to coordinate civil aviation requirements. An International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conference was held in 1944 to harmonize the management of civil/military aircraft operations and its attendant safety and security demands.

4. Since its inception at Chicago Conference in 1944, the ICAO Convention, also known as Chicago Convention has been accepted by189 countries.3 Consequently, the ICAO was established in 1947 to solve the problems associated with management of international flights. The ICAO was also tasked with the responsibility of administering universal link between all countries.4 This is to ensure smooth management and efficient linkages among countries operating on international flight routes for enhanced internal security. The problem of providing efficient linkages between nations/countries airports to ensure safe and efficient air operations is the responsibility of airport management.

5. In the United kingdom (UK), airport management is one of the most dynamic and rewarding sector in aviation industry in the country. The UK airport management is considered a top priority in its internal security policies since after 9/11 attacks. The UK government has taken pre-emptive measures to ensure that the countries airport management set-up is provided with conducive environment to carry out its statutory roles. This is evidenced in the scrutiny and vetting of passengers and security control checks among others at the airports for enhanced airport management and internal security in the UK.

6. As dynamics of aviation industry increases, airport management became more and more critical to the UK’s economy, commercial and security interests began to take precedence over other concerns. Thus, in UK, airport management is an established structure vested with the responsibility of ensuring effective planning, coordinating and monitoring of the movement of people, goods and services through the airport towards achieving definite goals for enhanced internal security.5 Increased airport activities necessitated the need to establish regulatory bodies such as Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to coordinate flights as well as ensuring safety of passengers, crew and airport users for enhanced airport management and internal security in UK.

7. In third world countries, taking South Africa and other developing countries as case study. Note: Third world countries have similar airport management and internal security challenges. In South Africa (SA), the Wright Brother’s success story encouraged the interest of South Africa in aviation development and airport management as early as 1910.6 South African Federal Aviation Authority manages and coordinates the activities of all agencies within the airports such as the Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) among others. The ATNS is the lead agency responsible for providing air traffic and navigation services in the country for enhanced airport management and internal security in SA. Others are provincial governments, South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) for military airports, some private organizations and individuals. The airports are partially commercialized with some restrictions to allow sustainable management of safety and cost recovery.7 The SANDF, by constitution, managed and controlled military airports and other facilities necessary for the operation of its aircraft. This allows her the exclusive advantage of concentrating on protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the country’s airspace for enhanced internal security in SA.

8. In some developing countries, it is only recently that airport management is viewed as a sector associated with lots of economic potential by individuals, corporate groups, agencies and government and requires serious investment to keep it moving forward. In an attempt to maximize the benefit of efficient airport management, the Federal Government (FG) granted the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) autonomy with the passing into law of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 by the National Assembly and assent of the Federal Government.8 CAA is the regulatory body of the aviation industry. The policy thrust of the regulatory Authority is “Development of airport management of international repute for enhanced internal security.9 Federal Airports Authority (FAA) is a service organization statutorily charged to manage all commercial airports and provide service to both passenger and cargo airlines. Generally, to create conditions for the development in the most economic and efficient manner of air transport and the services connected with it. It is in pursuant of this, that the FG would commit over Millions of Dollars to upgrade facilities and improve the management architecture of all major airports within the country for safe and efficient conduct of air operation.10 This the government is doing to standardize the airports by regulating its policy framework in line with global best practice following the incident of 9/11 and other breaches of security at our airports.

9. The porosity of all the country’s airports is a matter of serious concern to the government and stakeholders. This has necessitated the need to improve on the existing support infrastructure and manpower to adequately man and secure this infrastructure for enhanced airport management and internal security. Others are provision of airport security network to ensure that airports are secured and safe for efficient air operations for enhanced airport management and internal security. In order to achieve these, there is the need for the government and other stakeholders to provide adequate funding to ensure that all necessary structures in line with global best practice are provided for enhanced airport management and internal security.

10. Despite these efforts by the government, some problems still persist, hence the need for this study. Some of these problems include inadequate policy to meet the contemporary security challenges and infrastructure deficiency for safe and secure airports. Others are insufficient skilled manpower to control and manage the activities at the airports for enhanced airport management and internal security. The absence of dedicated airport security force to man the entry and exit points to identify early intrusion pose a potential threat to airport management and internal security. Realizing airport management’s inherent potential, the government would conceive the vision to develop and promote airport management for enhanced internal security. In spite of these strides and aspirations, airport management would still remains plagued with paucity of funds for the provision of aviation priority equipment and infrastructure among others which undermines airport management and internal security. The purpose of this study therefore is to explore ways of improving airport management for...