The Seventh Aviation Security (AVSEC) and Facilitation (FAL) Seminar for the States in the Eastern, Central Asian, Balkan and Baltic areas of the ICAO EUR Region (ICAO AVSEC/FAL Seminar/07 )was conducted from 2 to 4 October 2019 in Baku, kindly and generously hosted by the Civil Aviation Authority of Azerbaijan. The participants discussed and exchanged intensively over two days about three agenda items:
- the understanding and value of the Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP) and questions arising side of States using the GASeP concept for implementing ICAO Annex 17 requirements; additionally security culture as an overarching concept to improve security was discussed in depth
- the new 11th edition of ICAO Doc 8973 (AVSEC manual) with a focus on those areas which were amended or newly developed ( e.g. CBR threats, use of explosive trace detection (ETD) equipment, behavior detection and a review of landside security and the difficulties faced when implementing the standards); and
- the Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Records (PNR) requirements of Annex 9 was addressed, one of the growing challenges States face, taking into account that API is already a standard and PNR very likely to become one in the near future.
The third day, the Civil Aviation Authority of Azerbaijan invited participants to visit Heydar Aliyev International Airport to see in practice measures implemented by Azerbaijan on landside security and cargo security and also sharing the concept and distribution of responsibilities between different groups of staff covering security duties. The friendly and open environment contributed to an outstanding exchange of information and to a successful event. The meeting was attended by 42 participants from 8 states.
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