British dismiss US security checks

[Jeffersons Ghost]

UK should not put up with US airport security – BA chairman
Martin Broughton says the US does not enforce many of the checks it demands of British airports


Britain should stop "kowtowing" to US demands over airport security, the chairman of British Airways, Martin Broughton, has said, adding that American airports did not implement some checks on their own internal flights.

He suggested the practice of forcing passengers on US-bound flights to take off their shoes and to have their laptops checked separately in security lines should be dropped, during a conference of UK airport operators in London.

There was no need to "kowtow to the Americans every time they wanted something done", said Broughton. "America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do. We shouldn't stand for that. We should say 'we'll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential'."

The remarks, reported in the Financial Times, were not disputed by BA. No one wanted weak security, Broughton said, but added: "We all know there's quite a number of elements in the security program which are completely redundant and they should be sorted out."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/27/airport-security-rules-uk-us

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