man was revealed to have a criminal record, no links to terrorism were discovered. But aviation security experts think it probable there are an unknown number of other passengers flying with loaded guns who do remain undetected, and some of those could indeed be terrorists. Since armed US Federal Air Marshals are also on many international flights, the prospect of a Wild West-style mid-Atlantic shoot-out at 35,000 feet is the nightmare scenario. Despite these fears, air travel is statistically shown to be one of the safest of all forms of transport. Although some dispute the methodology behind the claim – arguing that comparing air to, say, rail is like comparing chalk and cheese – there is no doubt that flying in commercial aircraft has become safer as a result of developments in flight technology. By some measurements, 2014 was the ‘safest year ever’ for commercial flying. According to the Aviation Safety
Network, which monitors all types of aviation crashes around the world, there were 21 fatal accidents involving passenger aircraft last year (the lowest ever in its database) compared with 29 in 2013 – but the death toll last year was 990, compared to 265 in 2013 and 475 in 2012. The main cause of the sharp spike in fatalities in 2014 was the loss of the two Malaysia Airlines B777s.
REAL RISK Flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine, put the spotlight on concerns that terrorism in all its forms – state-sponsored or carried out by individuals – remains a real risk. Little wonder, therefore, that traveller safety is moving up the agenda: it was the fifth most important issue for travel buyers surveyed before last month’s Business Travel Show in London. In a similar survey last year, the ranking of the issue was tenth. Travel management company HRG has also seen the issue take a higher priority with corporate clients, and is working with them to make sure their travel programmes “are fit for purpose in these times of heightened security”, according to Karen Smithson, HRG’s UK director of client management. “We are also seeing client travellers working
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far more often and more closely with their in-house security teams.” Are those responsible for buying and managing corporate travel right to be concerned about the threat to flying, even though the number of fatal airliner disasters keeps falling? Probably yes since, apart from a moral obligation, there are also statutory duty-of-care requirements that govern where and how employees are sent. This is a sensitive issue for companies,
who are reluctant to get into the specifics of policies. But one travel manager from a major company did admit that utilising private jets was an option adopted more frequently, although generally for senior executives. In fact, a number of leading US
organisations, such as the Walt Disney Company, actually mandate their CEOs to fly the corporate jet at all times – for personal as well as business use – because of security concerns. Whether top UK CEOs get the same perk is not so obvious, given the different corporate disclosure rules on this side of the Atlantic, although it seems likely.
SECURITY COSTS But company travel costs are also impacted in other ways by security concerns. According to Airports Council International Europe, which represents over 450 airports in 45 European countries, security represented about one fifth of airport operating costs in 2012, with some four out of every ten employees being involved, and the cost is increasing. As there is little public funding for
many of these airports, these fees are inevitably passed on to the airlines – and travellers – in the form of higher fares generated by supplementary charges levied on airline tickets under various guises. Moreover, increased airport security can often lead to delays, missed connections and missed meetings. For some regular travellers and corporate buyers, this raises questions of whether the trip is really necessary or if an alternative, such as videoconferencing, would be as effective. Yet few business travellers would quibble at the massive investment in aviation security. In December 2001, just
BBT MARCH/APRIL 2015 25
A number of major US companies actually mandate their CEOs to fly the corporate jet at all times because of security concerns
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