BA Chairman says "No more kow-towing to U.S. on security"

October 27, 2010


The chairman of British Airways has criticized airport checks as "completely redundant" and said Britain should stop "kow-towing" to US demands for increased security, the Financial Times reported today.
The newspaper quoted Martin Broughton as saying at the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association in London on Tuesday that no one wanted weak security.
Broughton said, however, the practice of forcing people to take off their shoes and have their laptops checked separately should be ditched.
"We all know there's quite a number of elements in the security program which are completely redundant," he said.
Broughton said there was no need to "kow-tow to the Americans every time they wanted something done" to beef up security on US-bound flights.