Melburnian1
Veteran Member
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- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
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'The Australian' is giving top billing to (among other requests) a call by Australian Airline Pilots Association president Murray Butt, a QF A388 pilot, to introduce compulsory ID checks for boarding domestic passengers.
I don't know what percentage coverage of airline pilots this organisation has. It may be quite low, and in any case pilots are only one group of airline staff. I haven't seen other unions join in, and even then many staff may not be members of unions, which overall (across the whole economy) have way under 20 per cent coverage. In other words, about 85 per cent of us are not union members, so at times they can be very unrepresentative.
As the article notes, the airlines will probably privately lobby against this due to its introduction negating cost savings from automated check-in kiosks. The Federal Transport Minister (Chester) made the point that minors may not have ID. On top of this, not everyone has a passport (which may surprise some AFF members), and some teenagers rely on ID cards like Keypasses to prove their age.
Those of us with longer memories may recall that in 1987 Australians voted against introduction of what was to be termed the Australia Card. A practical difficulty would be a need to have clear rules about which forms of ID were acceptable. How checking would be organised would be crucial as doing it at the gate would be impractical and slow, unless the whole process was largely automated. Those with airline lounge access don't present at gates until the last minute in many cases.
There is also a very sensible call for contractors working at airports to be subject to metal detector and bag screening. While neither will apparently detect plastic explosives, it has long been a concern that these ground staff can get access to so many places on the tarmac and yet sometimes their bona fides could be under question.
If the paywall wins, type 'pilots push for passport style photo ID checks' into Google.
Nocookies | The Australian
One could expect to hear more of this debate played out publicly.
I don't know what percentage coverage of airline pilots this organisation has. It may be quite low, and in any case pilots are only one group of airline staff. I haven't seen other unions join in, and even then many staff may not be members of unions, which overall (across the whole economy) have way under 20 per cent coverage. In other words, about 85 per cent of us are not union members, so at times they can be very unrepresentative.
As the article notes, the airlines will probably privately lobby against this due to its introduction negating cost savings from automated check-in kiosks. The Federal Transport Minister (Chester) made the point that minors may not have ID. On top of this, not everyone has a passport (which may surprise some AFF members), and some teenagers rely on ID cards like Keypasses to prove their age.
Those of us with longer memories may recall that in 1987 Australians voted against introduction of what was to be termed the Australia Card. A practical difficulty would be a need to have clear rules about which forms of ID were acceptable. How checking would be organised would be crucial as doing it at the gate would be impractical and slow, unless the whole process was largely automated. Those with airline lounge access don't present at gates until the last minute in many cases.
There is also a very sensible call for contractors working at airports to be subject to metal detector and bag screening. While neither will apparently detect plastic explosives, it has long been a concern that these ground staff can get access to so many places on the tarmac and yet sometimes their bona fides could be under question.
If the paywall wins, type 'pilots push for passport style photo ID checks' into Google.
Nocookies | The Australian
One could expect to hear more of this debate played out publicly.
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