Travel News
AIRLINES and their passengers have been warned to brace for a "potentially massive surge" in security costs at international airports as a result of a series of ASIO reports on airport vulnerabilities.
Airport umbrella group the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia says it knows of one airline that is already planning to spend $10 million on security upgrades and is looking at a final project worth up to $60m.
It warns airlines potentially face paying for upgrades around the country worth "many tens of millions of dollars", costs that will be passed on to consumers, without being told the rationale behind them.
BARA executive director Warren Bennett said ASIO began looking at airport security after the review several years ago by British expert John Wheeler and produced a series of "vulnerability reports", which had been passed on to airport operators.
He said operators were under pressure from the Office of Transport Security to respond.
He said BARA understood the reports covered issues such as perimeter access, CCTV coverage and internal access.
But he said it did not know what else was coming that might add up to $45m to $60m in one airport and there had been no indication from other airports as to their response.
Read more about security upgrades to see passengers slugged at The Australian.
