EU security boost leaves industry lagging, with IATA offering global training courses
Cargo archive stories #229
Thursday, 27 February 2014
NEWS that validation of RA3 agents was kicking in as an essential prelude to the European Union’s ACC3 regulatory regime seems to have evoked some surprise in the global air cargo industry.
RA3 status refers – according to EU regulation 185/2010 which forms the foundation for detailed measures implementing the EU’s common basic standards on aviation security – to “a third country EU aviation-validated regulated agent”.
Just in case that’s not clear, the validation checklist introduction defines an RA3 as “a cargo handling entity located in a third country that is validated and approved as such on the basis of an EU aviation security validation”.
ACC3, in turn, is an abbreviation for “air cargo or mail carrier operating into the (European) Union from a third country airport”.
Both RA3 and ACC3 are vital to Asia Pacific air cargo and indeed to all international air cargo operations into the EU, in this case also deemed to include Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The new regulations come into effect on July 1 and are all-embracing.
While they appear to have come as something as a surprise to many, they have actually been in the making for around four years, triggered by growing unease that Europe was still vulnerable to air cargo security breaches.
The prime reason they have not become familiar to the freight and logistics sectors is that ACC3 puts the compliance onus firmly on carriers, rather than forwarders and shippers as in most other inter-country/region systems.
They have come to the fore in recent weeks because – as we reported in our daily online e-news service – Bangkok Flight Services (BFS) has been validated as an RA3, despite being a ground handling agent rather than a carrier.
Stewart Sinclair, managing director of BFS/Worldwide Flight Services explained that the company had long been working closely with its client companies “to establish exactly what the requirements were for both airlines and ground handlers”.
It came to the conclusion that even though “the onus is on airlines to ensure a secure supply chain,” it would be useful all round “to achieve validation as a regulated agent at the earliest possible time”.
The ACC3 validation checklist introduction stipulates that “an RA3 shall ensure that security controls including screening where applicable have been applied to consignments bound for the EU and the consignments have been protected from unauthorised interference from the time that those security controls were applied until the consignments are loaded onto an aircraft or are otherwise handed over to an ACC3 or other RA3”.
If the EU aviation security validator concludes that the entity has succeeded in complying with the objectives referred to in this checklist, a validation report will be given to the validated entity.
Some carriers have been slow to do all this and now there is a rush globally, not only to achieve validation but in more than a few cases to actually secure an RA3 whose schedule is not already too tight.
There aren’t a large number of RA3s available for handling validation. As would be expected, there is a high barrier for qualification and the training process isn’t a walkover. The EU’s expectations that industry training organisations would apply enthusiastically for RA3 program accreditation did not eventuate and the workload fell on the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which set up a specialist educational unit.
IATA has also made much of the running in highlighting the need for action on ACC3. It is embarking on a global series of three-day workshops covering ACC3 readiness. The Asia Pacific workshops will be held in Singapore March 17-19 and October 20-22, (after the EU July 1 deadline).
Topics to be tackled include: Organisation and responsibilities of an ACC3 carrier at the airport, carrier security program requirements, recruitment and training of staff handling cargo, database development, cargo acceptance procedures, screening requirements, high risk cargo/mail, cargo protection and security, documentation requirements for cargo security, compliance with security programs, interpretation of ACC3 security audit checklist items, participation in EU aviation security audits, ACC3 carrier roles and responsibilities and the IATA pre-assessment tool kit.
Some carriers have muttered a bit that they already have a high-standard of security in place, not only to meet regulatory requirements elsewhere and fulfil IATA membership obligations but also as a matter of best practice, widely supported by forwarders, customs brokers, logistics and transport suppliers, shippers and local border authorities.
But in general there’s a reasonably strong commitment to see ACC3 through to fruition as yet another level of vulnerability prevention.
The bottom line, anyway, is that there is no option: The EU is not in a mood to compromise.
EU security boost leaves industry lagging, with IATA offering global training courses
Cargo archive stories #229
Thursday, 27 February 2014
NEWS that validation of RA3 agents was kicking in as an essential prelude to the European Union’s ACC3 regulatory regime seems to have evoked some surprise in the global air cargo industry.
RA3 status refers – according to EU regulation 185/2010 which forms the foundation for detailed measures implementing the EU’s common basic standards on aviation security – to “a third country EU aviation-validated regulated agent”.
Just in case that’s not clear, the validation checklist introduction defines an RA3 as “a cargo handling entity located in a third country that is validated and approved as such on the basis of an EU aviation security validation”.
ACC3, in turn, is an abbreviation for “air cargo or mail carrier operating into the (European) Union from a third country airport”.
Both RA3 and ACC3 are vital to Asia Pacific air cargo and indeed to all international air cargo operations into the EU, in this case also deemed to include Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The new regulations come into effect on July 1 and are all-embracing.
While they appear to have come as something as a surprise to many, they have actually been in the making for around four years, triggered by growing unease that Europe was still vulnerable to air cargo security breaches.
The prime reason they have not become familiar to the freight and logistics sectors is that ACC3 puts the compliance onus firmly on carriers, rather than forwarders and shippers as in most other inter-country/region systems.
They have come to the fore in recent weeks because – as we reported in our daily online e-news service – Bangkok Flight Services (BFS) has been validated as an RA3, despite being a ground handling agent rather than a carrier.
Stewart Sinclair, managing director of BFS/Worldwide Flight Services explained that the company had long been working closely with its client companies “to establish exactly what the requirements were for both airlines and ground handlers”.
It came to the conclusion that even though “the onus is on airlines to ensure a secure supply chain,” it would be useful all round “to achieve validation as a regulated agent at the earliest possible time”.
The ACC3 validation checklist introduction stipulates that “an RA3 shall ensure that security controls including screening where applicable have been applied to consignments bound for the EU and the consignments have been protected from unauthorised interference from the time that those security controls were applied until the consignments are loaded onto an aircraft or are otherwise handed over to an ACC3 or other RA3”.
If the EU aviation security validator concludes that the entity has succeeded in complying with the objectives referred to in this checklist, a validation report will be given to the validated entity.
Some carriers have been slow to do all this and now there is a rush globally, not only to achieve validation but in more than a few cases to actually secure an RA3 whose schedule is not already too tight.
There aren’t a large number of RA3s available for handling validation. As would be expected, there is a high barrier for qualification and the training process isn’t a walkover. The EU’s expectations that industry training organisations would apply enthusiastically for RA3 program accreditation did not eventuate and the workload fell on the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which set up a specialist educational unit.
IATA has also made much of the running in highlighting the need for action on ACC3. It is embarking on a global series of three-day workshops covering ACC3 readiness. The Asia Pacific workshops will be held in Singapore March 17-19 and October 20-22, (after the EU July 1 deadline).
Topics to be tackled include: Organisation and responsibilities of an ACC3 carrier at the airport, carrier security program requirements, recruitment and training of staff handling cargo, database development, cargo acceptance procedures, screening requirements, high risk cargo/mail, cargo protection and security, documentation requirements for cargo security, compliance with security programs, interpretation of ACC3 security audit checklist items, participation in EU aviation security audits, ACC3 carrier roles and responsibilities and the IATA pre-assessment tool kit.
Some carriers have muttered a bit that they already have a high-standard of security in place, not only to meet regulatory requirements elsewhere and fulfil IATA membership obligations but also as a matter of best practice, widely supported by forwarders, customs brokers, logistics and transport suppliers, shippers and local border authorities.
But in general there’s a reasonably strong commitment to see ACC3 through to fruition as yet another level of vulnerability prevention.
The bottom line, anyway, is that there is no option: The EU is not in a mood to compromise.
