Lufthansa Cargo Security Boss Hails Progress

     Harald Zielinski, Lufthansa’s chief security officer called the company’s Cargo Security Conference on Wednesday (Sept. 19), a great success and a good contribution to the necessary dialogue between government authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, and members of the cargo industry.
     “This is the first time I’ve been to a meeting like this where there hasn’t been any yelling matches,” Mr. Zielinski said, adding “I hope this is the start to continuing dialogue on the topic in the future; I think we’ve helped establish a good relationship between the European Union and the (U.S.) Transportation Safety Administration; this is a big step.”
     Aside from the realistic assessment of the importance and positive outcome of the event, Mr. Zielinski brought up perhaps the most poignant and necessary of questions during the conference: What happens if there is an attack through cargo? What will the industry do then? If that does happen, everything in the business of aviation will change, he predicted, so it is indeed in everybody’s interest to work together to be as effective in security as possible. “A security department like us has to be present; as a company we want to be prepared,” he said.
     Mr. Zielinski, whose presentation segment was entitled “Security As A Strategic Investment,” said he couldn’t expect that all the cargo coming to Lufthansa is at the same security standard, and that no matter how much control there is in the cargo supply chain, there are still weaknesses that can be improved and corrected.
     He also said research and development must harmonize to continue to improve technologies like sniffer machines that can detect dangerous substances in cargo.
     Mr. Zielinski said unfortunately for companies such as Lufthansa, the cost of security comes at a hefty price. He said while the investment in security had contributed to an almost negligible level of theft for Lufthansa Cargo in the last several years, security add-on charges and high investment would have to continue – something that’s largely passed on to customers in surcharges.
     In the past, Mr. Zielinski has said Lufthansa spends a “high two-digit million euro” sum on security at Frankfurt, and additional monies for security at other cargo stations around the world.
     His recipe for success: constantly evaluate threats of any kind; identify strengths and weaknesses; adopt operations for security requirements; audit and evaluate continuously; maintain flexibility; and balance the costs versus operations versus the security need.
George Frey