Avsec is a government entity established under New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Act to provide aviation security at New Zealand’s seven international airports to all international and some specified domestic air transport services.
Avsec is funded through domestic and international passenger security charges on airlines. As a national organisation with around 800 staff, Avsec has its own national training centre in Auckland. The centre is also a sub-regional ICAO Aviation Security Training Centre.
Avsec currently manages six aviation security projects in the South Pacific—in the areas of coordination, training, equipment provision, equipment maintenance audits and regional security provider summits.
Since 2007, the coordination and development of Avsec’s Pacific projects has been managed by Murray Breeze, Manager Quality Systems Development (Pacific Islands).
Prior to his appointment, Breeze had a lengthy specialist aviation security background with the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority.
His current role also includes liaison with international partners such as ICAO, the Australian Office of Transport Security, the US Transportation Security Administration and the Pacific Aviation Safety Office.
The Pacific aviation security environment
The Pacific is generally a relaxed region with occasional local tensions rising from time to time in some countries.However, within the area covered by Avsec projects (Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands), the aviation security threat level is low to very low or negligible.
Most of these Pacific countries are about three hours flying time from New Zealand and their populations range from 1,500 to 500,000 people.
To support these countries and decrease the threat, Avsec provides assistance through a variety of projects. Such assistance is important as many of these countries rely on their air links to New Zealand and Australia, the two countries that provide most of their tourists, or through which tourists transit to get to their island of choice.
Air New Zealand, Pacific Blue (a subsidiary of Virgin Blue) and Air Pacific are the major airlines operating in the South Pacific. They fly within the South Pacific and to/from New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
In general, aviation security units in the South Pacific are part of government-owned airport companies with the exception of Niue, where aviation security activities are carried out by the local police, and the Solomon Islands where the aviation security provider is a stand-alone government agency under a Civil Aviation Act. (This is similar to the New Zealand structure).
In recent years, several Pacific countries aligned to the Pacific Aviation Safety Office agreed to an aviation oversight treaty and they adopted the New Zealand-style Civil Aviation Acts and Rules for aviation security—and also for their other aviation activities such as flight operations, airworthiness, etc. This common regulatory system has resulted in New Zealand being a ‘natural’ provider of assistance and advice.
All international airports in these countries have cabin bag x-ray machines, walk-through metal detectors and hold baggage screening machines in place. Most of these important equipment have been provided by New Zealand.
Australia also assists and has recently provided several countries with Tutor 2 CBT training systems and laptops to run the programme.Avsec believes there is little point in placing shiny new equipment in airports and not, at the same time, delivering the skills needed to operate it. While this philosophy may seem fundamental, it has not always been the case in the Pacific. There are many examples of donated equipment delivered to airports without any training or support, or without appropriate maintenance or user manuals (in English, the predominant second language spoken in the Pacific). Where such equipment has not been supported, a common outcome has been that when the equipment fails, it is simply discarded because of the lack of basic knowledge or information needed to fix it.
Why New Zealand involvement?
The six countries which Avsec currently assists were selected for their historical and geographical links with New Zealand (Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world) and because five of them have direct air links to New Zealand.
The Solomon Islands, which does not have direct air links, is part of the group because of New Zealand’s historical connection through such organisations as the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) which has troops and police from a range of Pacific countries assisting with peace-keeping operations.
The Solomons project commenced as a joint Australian and New Zealand project but is now solely New Zealand-funded as Australia focuses more on the regulatory regime.
For some years, Avsec has been able to access aviation security funding for the Pacific from the New Zealand government’s Pacific Security Fund.
This cross-government contestable fund, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has provided project funds for aviation security.
The fund is open to bids from New Zealand government agencies that seek to carry out security related activities and assistance in the Pacific.
This offshore assistance has been critical to the development of proficient aviation security units in small countries because of their inability to access adequate funding.
Full funding from government is rarely available because the economies are too small, and the other primary option is the imposition of charges on passengers.
In most cases, such passenger charges if they were to cover all costs, would be unsustainable and a barrier to travel.
For most counties, the solution will be a mixture of both funding sources. However, any funding solution requires considerable government commitment. In the meantime, Avsec and the New Zealand government have been in a position to assist until other sustainable sources of funding are available.
While acknowledging their own priorities and responsibilities, the Australia/New Zealand relationship around aviation security has worked well, with clearly identified and established lines of responsibility.
Avsec works with the aviation security provider and the Australian Office of Transport Security tends to work with the regulatory personnel.
The effective communication between the two agencies has meant that any doubling up on efforts or resources has been avoided
Over the last two years, the global recession has assisted many Pacific countries in that visitor numbers (primarily from Australia and New Zealand) have increased significantly as travellers have been reluctant to spend on major trips to the Northern Hemisphere and have instead opted for local Pacific holidays.
This increase in travellers has also necessitated an appropriate level of aviation security.
Much to the surprise and consternation of many foreign passengers, LAG requirements have been introduced and enforced. Recently, the effectiveness of passenger screening in Pacific countries was tested by Avsec in order to provide objective evidence, the results of prohibited Items, LAGs and dangerous goods seized from ex-Pacific transiting passengers at Auckland International Airport (Auckland services passengers transiting from five of the six Pacific countries Avsec assists) were recorded over a three month period. The resulting evidence assisted the countries concerned in improving their LAG performance.
Case Studies
Two particular aviation security success stories are the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
The Solomon Islands: As a result of bilateral discussions between the Australian Office of Transport Security and Avsec, Avsec went to the Solomon Islands in 2005 on a needs assessment visit.
The country had recently come through a period of civil instability and the infrastructure had become run down. At that time it was established that there was no equipment in place, little internal or external training had been carried out for several years. A project was developed and jointly funded by New Zealand and Australia which saw new screening equipment, training and advice being delivered and implemented. Vanuatu: In August 2009, Airports Vanuatu Ltd sought assistance for the provision of some HBS equipment to replace their current 13-year old machine at Bauerfield International Airport. The request was managed by Avsec and the machine was installed and operational within four months of the initial request.
The airport company also contributed to the success of the project by rebuilding and refurbishing the HBS room.
Where to from here?
Provided that funding from the Pacific Security Fund is available, Avsec will continue to support its Pacific colleagues to ensure aviation security units are developed to a sustainable level in training, expertise and equipment.
The targeted and well-directed activity carried out by Avsec provides airlines operating in the region and foreign regulators with assurances that the South Pacific is more secure and that the threat to aviation is lessened.The outcome of this assistance is the provision of systems, procedures, quality control, technology and training to protect people and their aircraft.
New Zealand is also very aware of the Rugby World Cup which it is hosting in September and October 2011. Visitor numbers are expected to be around 85,000 over the course of the event and it seems likely that a number of these visitors will combine travel to New Zealand with side trips to other Pacific destinations.
This could put some pressure on islands airports, but New Zealand believes this will be managed well by the countries concerned. Meanwhile, the economic benefits of these extra visitors will be much welcomed.
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