LONDON — The European Commission is hammering out a pan-European Union response to security issues surrounding liquids in airline hand luggage because of their potential use in terrorism.
“The Aviation Security Committee takes the view that recent events have shed light on new forms of threat to civil aviation by means of using liquid explosives,” the European Commission said in a statement Thursday. “The Committee believes that a common European response to address this threat is urgent.”
The Regulatory Committee for Civil Aviation Security met Wednesday and Thursday to discuss carrying liquids in hand luggage following the August news of an alleged terrorist plot to blow up U.S.-bound planes leaving U.K. airports.
Since the scare, U.S.-bound passengers leaving the U.K. are prohibited from carrying on board liquid-based products, which effectively bars them from buying cosmetics, fragrances, skin care products and alcohol in airport shops.
European Union member states currently have common security requirements, which restrict items permitted on board planes, such as knives and fireworks.
Each country may raise its security levels if it wishes, which is what the U.K. did in the wake of the terrorist alert by banning passengers taking liquids with them on U.S. flights.
During its deliberations on Sept. 6 and 7, “considerable progress was made on the contents of a rulemaking aimed at controlling the movement of liquids through the screening checkpoints,” the statement continued.
Some immediate decisions were undertaken, including common rules on separately screening electronic equipment, such as laptop computers, to allow for better detection of concealed items and an “agreement in principle” was decided upon regarding screening equipment standards. Other decisions will be made after the Committee’s Technical Taskforce meets on Monday and an International Civil Aviation Organization Security Panel meeting, which will be held from Monday through Friday. The committee “had an exchange of views” with Kip Hawley, assistant secretary of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Meanwhile, Mark Riches, managing director of travel retail operator World Duty Free, told WWD this week that tighter security regulations that have been in place since the August terrorist scare continue to affect business in its U.K. airport stores.
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“Business is back to a better level, but it has not returned to pre-Aug. 10 [levels],” he said, referring to the date of the start of the terrorist scare, although he declined to specify how much revenue has been affected.
Riches said it is important to put any impact into perspective, since it is being felt mainly in U.K. terminals with heavy U.S.-bound traffic. Further, he said the travel-retail industry is resilient in times of crisis.
“We’re used to crisis,” he said. “We’ve had events like SARS, 9/11, bird flu, the abolition of European duty free; we’re used to dealing with this.” However, he noted that the most recent predicament is not the same as its predecessors.
“This was different from the rest, as it had structural implications, since we’re not able to sell certain products on certain routes,” he explained. “It may take longer to recover than in previous instances, [but] we will recover.” World Duty Free, which is owned by British Airports Authority and operates 64 doors across U.K. airports, is looking for ways to hurdle obstacles. As reported, it has tested a gate-delivery program with Virgin Atlantic, whereby U.S.-bound passengers can buy cosmetics and liquids up to 80 minutes before their flights, then have the products delivered directly to planes.
Riches said the trial “worked OK,” but that the time constraint makes the system less than ideal. He suggested other solutions might include liquid-based items purchased in travel-retail shops being packaged in sealed, see-through plastic bags, which would allow security agents to verify quickly that liquid items had not been tampered with.
He said, however, such a scheme would require government approval before being put into practice.