German air shipping industry warns against overreaction on air freight security

safety procedures’, they would still need all the paperwork – stamps and stamps and papers and papers — there is no way to do it 100 percent. You always have some countries not participating.”

The German government has already admitted as much. Jan Muecke, the parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transportation, said Monday: “It is practically impossible to scan the entire freight, given the current quantity.”

Even if the logistical and technological problems could be surmounted, Mueller believes that tightening security will always damage the economy.

“The governments will never pay this. The consumer will always pay for the extra costs,” he said. “And it’s not just a matter of money, it’s also the delay. Spare parts for airplanes or special machines sometimes have to be delivered in a few hours.”

“The delay will mean a lack of quality, a lack of punctuality, lack of efficiency, so it will be detrimental to the world economy in the end.”

Mueller believes that, as with the illegal drugs trade, the only practical solution is to infiltrate the criminal organizations themselves. “If all this worked, we would not have illegal drugs going to the U.S.,” he said. “But we have hundreds of tons being illegally imported to the U.S. every year. These things cannot be prevented from entering the country. We can do something to control the mafia and the terrorists, but not the product itself.”

In Germany, federal police under the authority of the Interior Ministry are responsible for searching passengers, but security for cargo planes comes under the remit of the Transport Ministry, through the Federal Agency of Aviation (LBA). Cargo companies like the German DHL also carry out their own security checks.

“Of course, to protect against dangers, we have to ensure that safety comes first,” DIHK boss Martin Wansleben told Deutsche Welle. “The minute check of every single delivery at the airport has technical and organizational limits. That is why it is so important that a secure chain of delivery is introduced, with complete supervision from the dispatcher to the airport.”

To achieve this, Wansleben believes that existing European Union regulations need to be better implemented. “The EU’s prescribed certification of known dispatchers and regulated commissioners should finally be introduced by the Federal Agency of Aviation,” he said.

“In terms of value, around 35-40 percent of international trade is processed through air freight,” Wansleben added. “These are particularly valuable, urgent, or fragile goods. That means any interference in air freight will lead to significant costs.”