Avalon ‘tops list’ for airport security holes

Andrew Mathieson
AVALON has topped off a list of regional airports vulnerable to security breaches, according to a counter-terrorism expert.
But airport management at Geelong’s peak regional provider hit back, ridiculing past audits of air transport security practices that suggested the airport was “easy to penetrate”.
Federal Government announced plans last month for a package of measures to strengthen aviation security against emerging threats to Australia’s airports.
The Government has left Avalon off a list of airports to share in $200 million for new screening technology including high-tech body scanners, improved explosive detectors and Australian Federal Police presence.
Office of Transport Security officials told Avalon representatives their airport was not a priority during a meeting this week.
Homeland Security Asia Pacific head Roger Henning said Avalon’s number of daily flights to capital cities and major tourism centres made it a bigger worry than other regional airports.
“Big airports are vulnerable but the secondary airports, like Avalon, are far easier to get into,” he said.
“The actually facility is still really just a couple of old hangers, tin huts.
“It’s very sloppy in respect to the overall understanding of what’s required to secure an airport, particularly when it has a relatively high-level of passenger transit.”
Mr Henning said Avalon’s tarmac security was “non-existent”.
“You could walk onto the Avalon paddock without any real problem.”
Avalon Airport general manager Justin Giddings believed security was a bigger problem at other airports.
He considered Avalon secure.
“I think there’s a lot of covert security that goes on that these guys aren’t aware of,” he said.
“We’ll always have security incidents and our plans are always evolving but I dispute (Mr Henning’s) claims.”
Mr Giddings said Avalon’s practice of only having one plane on the tarmac at a time reduced threats from terrorists posing as staff.