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Security Modeling
Boeing, Airbus and the Air Transport Association are among the
founding members of a joint initiative aimed at achieving agreement
on the costs and benefits of new airline security measures. John
Stammreich, Boeing's VP for homeland security, says that the joint
initiative will benefit from the company's own studies. "We've
used internal funds to model the security and cost impact over
the entire aviation experience, from reservations to onboard,"
he says. "This will allow companies or governments to answer
questions such as 'If you change visa requirements, have you improved
security and how much will it cost?'"
Another example is the controversial idea of a 'trusted passenger'
program, under which passengers who have passed background checks
and carry a positive ID would be fast-tracked through security.
Modeling, says Stammreich, could answer questions such as "does
it get more people flying, and does it improve security?"
Boeing's Homeland Security organization, teamed with Siemens,
led a consortium that pulled off the difficult task of implementing
explosives screening for all bags at all U.S. airports. "We
were not the low bidder," says Stammreich. "We won because
we had more skin in the game than anybody else. We weren't going
to shut down the airlines on January 1."
Future developments, Stammreich suggests, will be based on integrating
and exploiting information that airlines and government already
have. "If you find traces of explosives on a bag, you can
reach into the system and find out if there's any commonality
with any other passengers-the same credit card, for example. Then
you can send their picture to a marshal on the airplane.
By Bill
Sweetman
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