Airlines present security vision

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The airline industry has presented its vision for the future of check-in security, including hi-tech colour-coded scanning corridors.

Passengers will be able to keep their shoes on and their bags in their hand - toothpaste, nail clippers, laptops and all - as they pass through the "checkpoint of the future".

Under a mock-up checkpoint on display at the Aviation Security World Conference in Amsterdam, passengers are guided into one of three corridors upon presenting their passports: blue for frequent travellers, purple for normal passengers and orange for those deemed to require enhanced vetting.

People do not have to empty their pockets, remove any of their clothing or subject themselves to pat-downs before walking through a 20-foot tunnel that scans metals, liquids, laptops and other potential dangers one by one.

International Air Transport Association chief Tony Tyler said: "We spend too much time on the 99.9% who mean us no harm, when threat detection surely should be focused on those with greater potential to do damage.

"By making our checkpoints smarter, and using 'known traveller' programmes, we can give everybody a baseline level of security ... and in the end get everybody through security much faster."

The concept faces technical and financial hurdles, and is likely to be opposed by people who object to profiling or believe passing through body scanners violates their privacy. But it indicates the direction the industry hopes to go, Mr Tyler said.

He argued the "risk-based approach" is not the same as profiling, since it does not use ethnic or religious data. It relies partly on pre-flight information submitted by passengers, partly on biometric scans and data stored in passports, and partly on human observers who would have the discretion to choose a more rigorous scan for someone acting suspiciously.

US Transport Security Authority (TSA) chief John Pistole said the checkpoint of the future idea parallels the TSA's own new emphasis on "risk-based security".

"It's an idea clearly worth consideration as technology develops," he said. "Segmenting the passenger population for different levels of security screening is exactly what we're pursuing."