Security Concerns in Air Cargo Sector

¶ … air cargo industry experienced tremendous growth since inception because of various factors in the aviation industry, particularly the freight sector. The growth and development of this industry is evident in its current significance on the freight sector. Moreover, this industry currently accounts for huge profitability in the freight sector because of increased shipping of various packages across the globe. This increased shipping is fueled by increased interconnectedness of people and countries due to rapid technological factors.

However, the industry has experienced tremendous challenges and concerns in relation to security because of the increase of security issues and emergence of new security threats throughout the world. Some of the major security challenges or issues facing the air cargo industry include terrorism, hijacking threat, vulnerability to security breaches, and probable introduction of explosive devices. These security threats are largely brought by the development of sophisticated tools and means for criminal activities by criminals, particularly terrorists. The emergence of these security threats and concerns facing the air cargo industry has contributed to the development of various measures and tools to enhance security.

One of the major ways that have been developed to address security issues facing the air cargo industry is screening air cargo. Comprehensive screening of the content of shipment packages has attracted considerable attention from various industry players because of its consideration as the only means of ensuring sufficient security in this sector. This increased attention and recognition has in turn resulted in the development and approval of different ways or methods of screening air cargo. Some of the major ways of screening air cargo include Explosive Truce Detection, Explosive Detection Systems, physical search, X-rays, and TSA-certified canine teams.

Security Issues Facing Air Cargo Industry

Air cargo industry is one of the most important elements in the transportation industry since it is responsible for transporting more than 35% of the value of total international trade, which accounts for more than $5.1 trillion. The air cargo industry, which is commonly known as air freight industry assists in capitalizing economic prosperity for nearly every country. The significance of this industry is evident in its role in stimulating business travel for every airline and serve as the leading economic signal for business and financial analysts. The air cargo industry has become important across the globe because of the need for increased connection in a fast-evolving global economy. Despite the significance of the air cargo industry, it has faced several security issues given the increase of security challenges across the globe. Actually, some of these security issues that the air cargo industry faces are attributed to the security concerns and issues facing aviation industry.

Overview of Air Cargo Industry

Air cargo can be described as anything other than individuals or personal baggage that travels by air. Air cargo is regarded as the latest addition to the freight industry unlike other ways of freight transportation like rail, ship, and surface vehicles. The industry was started right after World War I and has developed to become a necessary segment of the world's global economy. The growth of the company is attributed to the fact the air cargo industry is holding a significant niche in the lightweight transportation segment and high-value commodities (Popescu, Keskinocak & al Mutawaly, 2010, p.210). Through the infrastructure that has largely been established by public agencies for air passenger travel, the air cargo industry and services links to nearly every part of the world.

As previously mentioned, the air cargo industry has developed to become an important segment in the aviation industry, especially freight sector since inception. The significance and rapid growth of the industry is partly fueled by the need for professional, efficient, and reliable air cargo industry (Sales, 2013, p.xix). This need emerges from the increased interconnectedness of people and countries around the world. Generally, the current fast-evolving global economy has increased the connection between people. Moreover, the emergence of developing countries in the past decade, which are attracting foreign direct investment and increased competition, has created increased global demand that in turn contribute to the growth of the air cargo industry.

Status of the Air Cargo Industry

Since its inception, the air cargo industry has experienced tremendous growth that has contributed to its significance in the freight sector. However, the growth of this sector has relatively declined since the recent global economic recession in 2008. The decline in the growth of the air cargo sector has occurred at airports and airline companies. Given signs of slow economic recovery, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, it is expected that the air cargo industry will experience tremendous growth in the near future. Nonetheless, the expected growth of the industry will take place and be dominated by Asia countries, particularly China and Japan. In America, the air cargo industry is highly concentrated with UPS and Federal Express accounting for nearly 80% of all cargo capacity in the entire country. Apart from dominating nearly all domestic cargo capacity, the Federal Express and UPS account for a significant portion of United States presence in various international markets.

Despite the effects of global economic activity on the air cargo industry over the past four years, especially in relation to cargo growth plans, airports are increasingly recognizing the significance of cargo and adopting necessary measures to generate more shares of this business. This has in turn contributed to increased competition as various airports and/or airlines seek to establish a significant present in this industry and obtain competitive advantages over their rivals. The increased competition, which fuels industry growth, is also driven by belly capacity provided by combination carriers as well as the freight capacity of overseas flag carriers ("Bilateral and Regulatory Issues," n.d.). The other aspect influencing the current growth of the airline industry is the rapid development and expansion of newly emerging economies in Latin America and Asia. It is increasingly evident that the overall outlook for the air cargo industry seems very strong with anticipated steady growth in the near future.

While industry outlook demonstrates positive indicators for future growth, there are several concerns that could hinder the growth of the air cargo industry. These factors include rising oil prices, political uncertainty in several countries across the globe, and unrest in financial markets. Actually, these factors have simultaneously slowed the general development and growth of the air cargo market in the recent past. Moreover, the industry's overall development has been slowed by the increased concerns about the environmental effect of plane trips, particularly in North America and Europe. These factors contribute to the need for improved management and successful management of air cargo.

Security Challenges in this Industry

In light of the increased threats on global security, the air cargo industry has also faced several security challenges in the recent past. These security challenges have considerable impact on the growth plans of the industry. Actually, physical security concerns have become major issues in the recent past though safety and security issues have been major concerns for transport planners and managers for several years. The security challenges facing the air cargo industry have evolved in the recent past because of the evolution of criminal activities, partly because of increased technological advancements. The rapid technological advancements have contributed to increased security threats by making it easy for criminal to develop sophisticated means and tools for achieving their objectives and conducting criminal activities.

The emergence of several security issues and concerns facing the air cargo industry is also attributed to the complex distribution network that characterizes the sector. Air cargo sector is made of a multifaceted distribution network that links manufacturers and shippers to various stakeholders. These stakeholders include off-airport freight consolidators, freight forwarders, and airport sorting and cargo handling sites for loading and unloading shipments from aircrafts. Some of the major security issues facing air cargo industry include

Terrorism

Terrorism has emerged as one of the major security issues and concerns across the globe in the recent past. The emergence of this security threat has been fueled by various factors including technological advancements and the emergence of extremist groups, particularly in Islamic countries. The threat of terrorism has developed to become a major security concern in several sectors including the air cargo industry. Terrorism is one of the major security concerns for this industry because it exploits the safety weaknesses of transportation. Moreover, this threat contributes to the beginning of symbolic activities that seek to destruct and disrupt in order to achieve certain ideological, political, and religious objectives. Similar to other modes of transport, air cargo industry is a key target since the main aim of criminal activities like terrorism is to obtain financial gain through illegitimate transactions like drugs and weapons.

While the events of 9/11 terror attacks highlighted a new set of security threats, the extent and scope of these security threats or concerns on the air cargo industry is even greater (Slack & Rodrigue, n.d.). The increased magnitude of the threat of terrorism on the air cargo industry is attributed to the less regulation and more global dimensions of this sector. These factors have combined to enhance the vulnerability of the air cargo industry to security breaches. Professionals in the air cargo industry experience significant challenges in detecting security weaknesses and vulnerabilities because of the large number of ports, the diversity of products carried in vessels, the enormous fleet of international shipping, and detection challenges. For ports in this industry, terrorism can exploit security vulnerabilities from the land side and the maritime segment. Air cargo industry involves the use of the container for transportation, which has generated significant challenges in detecting illegal and/or dangerous cargoes though it has played a crucial role in globalization.

Hijacking

The second major security threat in the air cargo industry is hijacking, which is linked to terrorism. Hijacking is a key concern in this sector because of the likelihood of criminals like terrorists to use a hijacked all-cargo aircraft as a weapon of mass destruction (Elias, 2010). This security threat was demonstrated in a dramatic incident in 1994 when an off-duty flight engineer at Federal Express tried to hijack an all-cargo aircraft and crash it into the firm's headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. The criminal boarded the plane in disguise of seeking free transportation, which is commonly known as deadheading in this industry. The hijacker's luggage i.e. A guitar case hid several weapons including a knife, hammers, a spear gun, and mallets. The hijacker's success in carrying these weapons in a guitar case was due to the lack of a federal requirement or organizational procedure for screening passengers and personal baggage in cargo aircraft. The criminal's attempt to take control of the plane was thwarted by three flight crew members resulting in a successful emergency landing in Memphis albeit serious injuries. While the hijacker's mission was thwarted, this unfortunate incident demonstrated the threat of hijacking in the air cargo industry.

Introduction of Explosive Devices

According to the Transportation Security Administration, the introduction of explosive devices on passenger and cargo flights is one of the two basic security threats in this industry (Elias, 2010). While no such attack has ever taken place in the history of this sector, the likelihood of using air cargo to launch an explosive device on a passenger aircraft is a major security concern. For terrorists, the air cargo system does not necessarily present a suitable opportunity to bomb a specific plane or create attention through bombing a passenger flight because shippers lack foresight or control of the transportation of a shipment. However, the vulnerability of air cargo aircraft to such attacks because of the various security weaknesses makes this concern a major security threat.

The strategies developed and implemented by the Transportation Security Administration have largely focused on the hijacking threat and contributed to vulnerabilities of the introduction of explosive devices. Actually, recent events indicate that terrorists have started targeting American-bound air cargo shipments through capitalizing on weaknesses in air cargo security in foreign countries. For instance, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Dubai, the United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates identified explosive devices that were hidden in packages shipped as air cargo that were American-bound in 2010. Even though these explosives were not detected through initial screening, they were identified following a tipoff by a member of a terrorist organization who had surrendered to Saudi Arabian officials before the incident.

This incident not only highlighted the vulnerability of the air cargo industry to the introduction of explosive devices but also highlighted the need for security officials and relevant agencies to ensure that cargo planes are not utilized as flying bombs for terror attacks (Mendenhall, 2013). The likelihood of terrorists and other criminals to launch explosive devices on cargo planes is influenced by the ability to infiltrate air cargo systems, which makes it difficult to effectively detect what's inside shipment packages. In essence, there is need for regulatory and technological improvements on detection systems that would help in improved detection of shipment packages.

Security Breaches

The other security issue facing the air cargo industry is security breaches given the increased vulnerability of this sector to security lapses and weaknesses. Security breaches are major concerns because of the likelihood and ability of criminals to infiltrate the cargo system and make it difficult to detect and identify potential security threats to cargo planes. The vulnerability of cargo planes to security breaches in evident in the fact these aircrafts don't have cockpit doors and lack strict identification checks for cargo personnel across airports. In attempts to address the susceptibility of their planes to security breaches, cargo pilots mobilized for governmental licenses to carry guns. However, their efforts did not yield expected results through passenger pilots are not permitted to carry weapons.

Security breaches in air cargo industry are significant concerns because of the lack strict and effective security policies to govern the sector. For a long period of time, the various professionals in this industry have increasingly been concerned with the existing regulatory policies that relate to security issues in the air cargo industry. These regulatory or policy measures do not necessarily facilitate the development and establishment of highly effective cargo security system based on emerging security issues and industry trends. This has in turn made the industry more vulnerable to security breaches and aided the establishment of weak cargo security system.

Moreover, security breaches are also brought by increased security demands in the industry, which in turn contribute to extra operational costs for global carriers. These increased security demands include investments in security personnel, screening devices, and video surveillance systems. While the new demands could help in improving safety and security in the freight industry, the air cargo sector is vulnerable to security breaches because of strained resources for many carriers.

Security breaches in this industry are also brought by the increase in the number of passenger traffic and the creation of hub and spoke networks. These factors have contributed to the probability of security breaches because they have generated significant strains on the security procedures in this sector. For instance, the developments of hub and spoke networks and passenger traffic, which in turn increase cargo traffic, have resulted in discrepancies in the effectiveness of screening.

Different Ways of Screening Air Cargo

One of the major ways of enhancing security by addressing security issues and concerns in the air cargo industry is screening. Actually, screening is increasingly regarded as one of the policy responses to security incidents in the air cargo sector. This consideration has created new controversies between proponents of a risk-based strategy that significantly depends of features of a shipment to single out packages for more scrutiny and those who advocate for all shipments to be subjected to certain kinds of physical inspection (Elias, 2010). Those who support comprehensive physical screening argue that it is the only means to ensure enough security of cargo planes and shipment packages. However, the proponents of risk-based strategy oppose comprehensive screening on the basis that it is too expensive, time consuming, and the present state of technology. Therefore, comprehensive screening is not better that properly developed targeting strategies.

Regardless of the controversies surrounding comprehensive screening, it is still considered as an important security measure. Currently, the United States air cargo industry as well as others throughout the world needs more widespread physical screening for shipment packages in both passenger and cargo planes. The need for such screening in America's air cargo industry is based on a regulatory mandate for 100% screening of all cargo aboard passenger and cargo planes. Generally, screening is described as a physical inspection, examination or non-intrusive means of evaluating potential threats to transportation security. As a result of the increased recognition of comprehensive screening as an important security measure in the air cargo industry, the Transport Administration Security has developed various screening methods. These methods were developed as part of TSA's certified cargo screening program in order to ensure approved screening means. In addition there are other different ways of screening other than TSA's approved assessment means. Generally, the different ways of screening air cargo include