AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY MONITORS NEW CARGO SECURITY RULES

AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY MONITORS NEW CARGO SECURITY RULES    The U.S. air-freight industry is closely monitoring the development of new air-cargo security legislation that the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved on March 13.
   “There’s a lot of interpretation that has to take place,” said David E. Wirsing, executive director for the Airforwarders Association, during a Federal Aviation Administration forecast meeting in Washington.
   The legislation, Air Cargo Security Act (S.165), was introduced by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., on Jan. 15. It calls for the Transportation Security Agency to increase scrutiny over air-cargo security management of the nation’s freight forwarders and airlines.
   Wirsing said forwarders already have good cargo screening techniques in place, and worries that if the TSA should require high-cost inspection equipment, such as x-ray machines in every warehouse, many forwarders would leave the business.
   Airforwarders Association officials plan to meet with TSA officials next week to voice their concerns about the proposed air-cargo security legislation and other agency-related initiatives.
   Plane operators are also concerned about the practically of some the government’s security initiatives, such as reinforced cargo doors. “Cargo’s not going to attack the crews,” said Thomas A. Corcoran, president and chief executive officer for Gemini Air Cargo, an all-cargo plane operator.
   Corcoran said the government needs to develop are “national security requirements with common sense.”