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The European Cockpit Association, representing 29 Professional Pilot Associations and more than 34,800 Professional Pilots across Europe, deplores any attempt to disrupt or attack the legitimate business of our members and their airlines.

ECA welcomes the continuous efforts of intelligence and security services to protect our members and the travelling public.

Today's security alert in the UK demonstrates and reinforces the need for the European Union to further develop EU-wide aviation security rules that are both effective and efficient. ECA will continue to work with the European Institutions and its European Social Partners from our industry to ensure that the current revision of the European Aviation Security Regulation 2320/2002 is completed quickly, effectively and intelligently, and that Implementing Directives follow-suit swiftly.

The UK situation shows once again that security threats do not stop at the gate to the aircraft. Aircraft have been and will remain potential targets. ECA therefore reiterates that EU security rules should be coherent and comprehensive. The future Aviation Security Regulation must therefore explicitly cover in-flight security, including a reiteration of the principle of the Captain’s authority on board.

ECA also calls for the institutions of the EU and European Governments to re-examine whether it is sensible or fair to ask the civil aviation industry to continue to shoulder the financial burden of necessary security measures. The protection of the general travelling public is a government responsibility, not only the one of the aviation industry which has become a target for terrorists. Therefore ECA continues to call upon the European Commission, EU Member States and the European Parliament to re-examine the funding of necessary security measures at airports and on board aircraft.

See Press Release (PDF)

See also ECA Position on the Proposal for a Regulation on Aviation Security (PDF)