SANAA: Security forces and airline staff sometimes outnumber passengers at Yemen’s main airport since a crackdown by Sanaa after Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attack on a US-bound plane in December.
Providing effective security presents a challenge however, experts say, and a new, bigger and potentially more secure terminal will not be ready for two years at least.
Sanaa’s airport, like its sister airport in Aden in the south, operates without electronic signboards and boarding for some flights is done using handwritten passes.
Domestic passengers often only have to show their boarding passes to bypass immigration and enter a luggage hall shared with international travelers. Customs then have to sort out again who is who.
The failed Dec. 25 plane attack focused attention on air security in Yemen, where the accused bomber is believed to have embraced militant views. Sanaa has declared open war on the global militant network and launched manhunts for its members.
Experts funded by the European Union are currently reviewing gate and passport control procedures at Sanaa and other Yemeni airports, project manager Fawzi Al-Zioud of the International Organization for Migration said.
“We hope to work with authorities to fill the gaps,” Zioud said, adding he would recommend more equipment to boost passport control and training for staff, some of whom speak poor English.
“From our discussions here, authorities are open and willing to improve the situation,” he said. Even with equipment such as body scanners, which can detect explosives such as the one used in the botched Dec. 25 bombing of the Detroit-bound plane, the task will not be easy.
“Even if Yemen were to adopt body scanners, the security staff at the airport have to operate them with care and skill,” said David Learmount, Operations & Safety Editor at air publications Flight International and flightglobal.com.
“The UK, which is the Islamist terrorists’ next most favored world target after the USA, feels it cannot take a chance with aircraft flying from Yemen,” he said. Britain suspended direct flights from Yemen last month over security.
For now, Sanaa has just one arrival and departure hall in the 1970s-built airport for both domestic and international flights, and passenger planes share runways with air force missions against Shiite rebels in the north.
Yemen, located on the Arabian Peninsula’s strategically important southern tip, is trying to fight a threat from resurgent Al-Qaeda fighters as well as quash a revolt in the north and separatist sentiment in the south.
The West and Saudi Arabia fear Yemen could become a failed state and worry Al-Qaeda could exploit the ensuing chaos to turn the poorest Arab country into a launch-pad for further international attacks.
Flagship carrier Yemenia flies to almost 40 destinations in Europe, Africa and Asia, according to its website. To fill planes, Yemenia combines domestic and foreign routes which poses another logistical challenge.
