IT is unclear if the air freight sector can cope with demands imposed by the European Commission's ACC3 security regulation with less than five months before it takes effect, according to Atlanta area Air Cargo World.
The European Commission insists that all carriers flying cargo and mail into the European Union from non-EU countries must have their security operations validated, said the report.
Some question whether resources exist for companies to comply with the regulation that stems from the Yemen cargo bomb plot in October 2010. But all affected carriers must be validated by July 1, under the rule.
"We're really talking about a significant amount of validations that need to take place. If you look at the global playing field, there's quite a number of airlines involved," said Europe's DHL security chief Werner Cooreman.
Said Lufthansa Cargo security chief Harald Zielinski: "There are some countries where it is not clear what is it really going on."
Said the International Air Transport Association's Mike Woodall: "It was quite clear that governments weren't going to create independent validators en masse, which is one of the key prerequisites for carriers becoming ACC3 compliance. The regulators thought that [companies] would step in and see business opportunities in training providers."
But neither governments nor companies created training programmes, he said. So it fell upon IATA. The organisation's training school, the Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators, gained accreditation in last April and ran the first class in May.
With just 14 months until ACC3 took effect, IATA's first validators came online. There are 5,000 validations to carry out before July 1.
The European Commission insists that all carriers flying cargo and mail into the European Union from non-EU countries must have their security operations validated, said the report.
Some question whether resources exist for companies to comply with the regulation that stems from the Yemen cargo bomb plot in October 2010. But all affected carriers must be validated by July 1, under the rule.
"We're really talking about a significant amount of validations that need to take place. If you look at the global playing field, there's quite a number of airlines involved," said Europe's DHL security chief Werner Cooreman.
Said Lufthansa Cargo security chief Harald Zielinski: "There are some countries where it is not clear what is it really going on."
Said the International Air Transport Association's Mike Woodall: "It was quite clear that governments weren't going to create independent validators en masse, which is one of the key prerequisites for carriers becoming ACC3 compliance. The regulators thought that [companies] would step in and see business opportunities in training providers."
But neither governments nor companies created training programmes, he said. So it fell upon IATA. The organisation's training school, the Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators, gained accreditation in last April and ran the first class in May.
With just 14 months until ACC3 took effect, IATA's first validators came online. There are 5,000 validations to carry out before July 1.