Security at major airports has been questioned by two leading business travel figures following last week’s diamond robbery at Brussels airport.
Greeley Koch, executive director of ACTE, and Geert Behets, president of the Belgian Association of Travel Management, said that the robbery had “shaken confidence in the fortress nature of the world’s airports”.
Koch said: “Thieves cut a hole in an airport security fence — big enough to accommodate a Mercedes van — and drove two vehicles across the tarmac.
“They then confronted a private security team, looted the aircraft of $50 million in diamonds, and drove off unchecked.
"Most travellers have an expectation that airport security in 2013 would make robbing a loaded commercial passenger jet slightly more difficult than robbing a train in 1890.”
The gang of robbers dressed as police officers struck at Brussels airport on February 19 just as diamonds were being loaded on to a Helvetic Airways flight to Zurich.
Behets added: “Considering what has been spent on airport security, including technology, manpower, and constant system evaluation, the perpetrators were in and out in under five minutes.
“While their motive was robbery, it could have easily been something else. This daring crime merely illustrates what is still possible despite existing preparations.
“It is likely that BATM and ACTE will be filing a formal statement with the appropriate branch of the European Commission.”
Koch and Behets were speaking as ACTE/BATM held an executive forum in Brussels on Friday (February 22), which was moderated by BBT editor Paul Revel.