Recently I went to a small airport on a small island and was surprised by the incredible amount of security people in new gear at the airport. Literally 100 security workers for an airport of 500 people. I looked up the website of the company logo they had on all their shirts, they're apparently audited only by the IATA, and the TSA, and the CIAA (the local island airport authory): https://www.fads.ky/partners
Have a quick glance at the wiki for the IATA, pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Air_Transport_Association
They represent 82% of all seat-miles for all of the world's air travel, that's a pretty big deal! This is their official document that explains the airport requirements to be a partner in their club: https://www.iata.org/policy/Documents/recognition-of-equivalence-position.pdf
The ruleset they use are apparently made by the ICAO, here is the ICAO 2019 "Global Aviation Safety Plan" Roadmap: https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/10004_en.pdf
Apparently they call each new version an "Annex" and we're on Annex 19 now. Every partnered airport has a roadmap and timeline to become at least Annex 17 compliant, and that's probably why you have been seeing increased security at almost every single airport in the world in the last 5 years, even the small ones.
Is this security useful and good, or is it just a way to line someone's pockets and create quotas for bag searches? Are the overwhelming majority of airports becoming regulated by an international cartel of sorts? Why am I just hearing about this IATA now, only after doing my own digging, despite the fact they regulate 82% of all air traffic?
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