Airports Council International is to Airports what IATA is to carriers. The two international trade associations are at odds over several issues regarding airport costs, responsibility for pre-boarding security costs, etc. Earlier this year, ACI issued a report that dealt in detail with what it calls the three weak links in pre-boarding security….processes, people and equipment. Improvements in all three areas will require money and airport/airline co-operation. However, in a July 2006 speech to The Aviation Club of the UK, ACI’s Director General called for IATA to disengage from any role in such discussions, suggesting that IATA does not really want the principals to meet directly. ACI denounced IATA for engaging in a “phoney war”, “distortions”, “empty rhetoric” and “an anti-airports agenda”. It called on IATA to become a partner, and not an adversary.(Originally posted by Doug Crozier)
