Europe: Airports face E15b in extra security costs

European airports are facing mounting security costs, adding to pressure from dwindling commercial revenues, rising interest rates and reluctance among airlines to pay more fees, an industry association said. ACI Europe predicts European airports will need to invest E15b by 2022 to meet new EU requirements on screening hold baggage. “Before 9/11, airports spent about 5% of their costs on security, now it’s 20%. We’ve been transformed into big security companies,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe. In the US, the government pays for security at airports, but in Europe it is mostly up to the airports and Jankovec said he didn’t expect governments to step in and help foot the bill. “We keep talking about it but we don’t see any opening,” he said. Jankovec also urged more cooperation between governments on intelligence and data sharing and said security resources should be focused on tracking the people who posed a possible threat, rather than subjecting all passengers to the same checks.<br/>