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Thursday, 30 June, 2011

GAO Reports On GA Airport Security

June 30, 2011

What’s at Issue

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a study, "General Aviation: Security Assessments at Selected Airports", that reports on the adoption of security measures, and their effectiveness, at 13 general aviation (GA) airports.

Why It’s Important

The report could lead some readers to believe that GA airports pose security vulnerability for the United States, due to the fact that the GAO restricted their review to implementation of a limited number of security measures without incorporating a complementary assessment of security risks as part of their review.

Major Provisions

GAO evaluated security measures at 13 GA airports. The GAO staff evaluated whether airports had, for example, perimeter fencing and lighting, access controls, on-site law enforcement and cameras monitoring the airport, among other provisions.  

The review included 10 airports that serve only GA and 3 airports that also support some scheduled commercial air service. All airports had lighting around the hangars, and 12 airports had full or partial fencing in place.

The adoption of other security measures varied at the airports reviewed. The majority of the airports, however, had implemented most of the measures evaluated.Because the airports reviewed by GAO were not statistically representative, the agency acknowledges that there is no ability to extrapolate the results of their study to GA airports in general.

NATA Position

NATA is disappointed with the GAO study. The GAO made no attempt to quantify how the so-called vulnerabilities it identified actually relate to known threats. Further, the GAO report did not take into consideration security measures implemented by FBOs, aircraft owners and air charter operators that would also mitigate the ability for unauthorized access to occur. It is impossible to determine whether security at any given airport is sufficient unless the review includes defined risks and an evaluation of how specific security measures mitigate those risks. The GAO appears to have concluded, in somewhat of a vacuum, that because the TSA recommends certain security measures (or requires them at airline-served airports) that these directly correlate to substantive risks at the GA airports evaluated. But to the contrary, the Transportation Security Administration has consistently stated that there are no known threats posed by general aviation that would justify any further regulatory or legislative mandates. The only logical conclusion, which was missed by the GAO, is that the security measures voluntarily adopted by airports are appropriate to the relatively low known risks.

Status

The GAO report, "General Aviation: Security Assessments at Selected Airports," is available for download.

Staff Contact
Jacqueline Rosser
Director, Regulatory Affairs
jrosser@nata.aero

For general press inquiries, contact Shannon Chambers at 703-298-1347 or schambers@nata.aero

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has been the voice of aviation business for more than 80 years. Representing nearly 3,700 aviation businesses, NATA’s member companies provide a broad range of services to general aviation, the airlines and the military and NATA serves as the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.