SITA formed a new Secure Journeys Working Group to address safety and security in non-secure areas of US airports.

The focus would include elements such as check-in lines and baggage claim areas, and to combat the insider threat.

The group is an expansion of SITA’s Border Automation User Group, which was formed in 2015 to facilitate implementation of the US Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Passport Control program.

Its formation was prompted by the March 2016 bombing at Brussels airport, which attached a departure hall, and the mass shooting at a baggage claim area in Fort Lauderdale’s airport in January this year.

The group says airports need to rethink how to move people through airports more quickly.

Other challenges that it plans to address are:

• Reducing and managing security wait times to reduce lines of people in non-secure areas.
• Incorporating biometrics for passenger screening authentication.
• Addressing ways in which identity management solutions can be used along with data analytics to reduce the growing concerns around the insider threat.