REGIONAL Express will not force its passengers to be screened at Albury airport unless government regulations change.
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The airline’s lack of security scanning is in the spotlight after terrorism raids in Sydney prompted greater passenger checks at capital city airports.
Unlike Virgin, Qantas and Jetgo Albury flights, Rex travellers are not screened because its aircraft weigh under 20 tonnes, the threshold for scanning.
Border Mail readers have told of being unhappy and very concerned at no checks for hand-held luggage taken aboard Rex flights at Albury.
Security specialist Roger Henning said Rex services should be screened.
He also wants photographic identification to be used by all passengers checking-in.
“If you go to the bowlo, RSL or leagues club or library in Albury you’ve got to produce photo ID,” Mr Henning said.
“What’s more important, getting a book out or saving a life?”
Rex said “the safety of our customers is paramount” and is guided by the Office of Transport Security (OTS).
“Rex believes that the risk assessment of air transport security risks is extremely complex and should be left to the experts at the OTS who are constantly carrying out risk assessments based on the latest state of events.
“Rex complies with all security instructions of the OTS and will continue to do so if and when regulations change.”
Rex said screening would mean fares would rise to cover the costs of security.
Mr Henning dismissed that as a nonsense.
“That’s just a come-on by Rex, that’s unmitigated rubbish,” he said.
“We’re already paying inflated prices to fly from Adelaide to Kangaroo Island and places like that and I disagree.”
Albury mayor Kevin Mack and pilot and member for Farrer Sussan Ley both said more security was likely to mean higher fares.
Cr Mack said it would be an “expensive undertaking” for Rex but noted it was “quite odd” it did not require screening but other airlines did.
“I don’t think it’s ideal, in a perfect world everyone would be screened,” he said.
Ms Ley said: “I agree it’s an anomaly when you get a Rex flight you don’t have your bags checked.”
But she added: “It’s capital cities, as was demonstrated at the weekend, where these activities tend to happen, not rural Australia."
Mr Henning told a federal aviation security inquiry in 2014 of his rural bomb fear.
“It is a simple process to consign an IED as freight on commercial flights from regional and rural airports, timed to detonate on approach to a capital city airport or for the item to be loaded onto an international flight,” he submitted.
