Today, aviation security is at the forefront of public consciousness particularly when they think of their own personal safety. The dramatic and catastrophic attacks of 911, utilizing civil aviation resources has made the world view aviation security with a critical eye. It could be argued that the response by States and individual airports and airlines has been positive and rapid, however the effectiveness has been marginal. Many factors have been proffered as the reason, from ineffective conservative governments, out-dated equipment, old infrastructure to a traditional mind-set that does not always accept change.
Due to the limited scope of this research paper, the author has chosen to concentrate on Corporate Governance and three associated principles, “ethics”, “accountability” and “oversight” to assess the effectiveness of aviation security. This theme was chosen because, in the 1990s the Hong Kong Government considered Corporate Governance was a key ingredients needed for a positive paradigm shift in the way aviation security was implemented at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Government and the public felt, that the management of the old “Kai Tak” airport in Kowloon prior to 1998 did not adequately consider Corporate Governance as a key ingredient to successful security resulting in long-standing misgivings about the airport’s ability to meet security requirements.
Fortuitously for this research paper, HKIA was relocated from Kowloon to Lantau Island in 1998 and a new Government owned company Aviation Security Company Limited (AVSECO) was set up at that time to provide the security. The Government and the Board of Directors of AVSECO were able to learn from the weaknesses of the old airport and from the outset understood the need for a change in the way the security was provided at the airport. So spurred on by the imminent airport relocation and the establishment of a AVSECO at the new airport, the Government considered it was an ideal time to change the security philosophy and make the new company accountable through good corporate governance.
With this background, the aim of this research paper is to review the standards and recommended practices set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is a Specialized agency of the UN having the aim of safeguarding civil aviation against actual and threats of ‘unlawful interference to civil aviation’. To do this, there is a literature review and observations from within the aviation industry. This review found that the security measures implemented to enforce the standards and therefore counter the real and emerging threats has been poor throughout the world. The question the industry therefore needs to ask is “If all the experts of the world have joined together (through ICAO) to set the standards to mitigate the risk, why does the public still feel the measures are unrealistic or ineffective in most airports?” Also, “Why, when we know in theory what to do, is it that many airports still fail to stop the threats? “In order to solve this puzzle, the paper critically looks at the international standards and their global implementation. Then, utilizing HKIA as a case study, the paper discusses if good corporate governance is a key to the successful implementation of effective aviation security.
The literature review and analysis of security data collected over the past 6 years at HKIA suggests that good Corporate Governance is in fact a key ingredient for effective security at airports. The limitations of this paper, only allows for the study of three principles of good corporate governance, namely ‘Oversight’, ‘Ethics’ and ‘Accountability’. It goes without saying that there are many other factors that can influence the success or otherwise of the implementation of effective aviation security – for example organizational culture, equipment employed, staff training, quality control, policies and procedures, to name just a few. The paper only discusses these other variables when they directly relate to the three chosen corporate governance principles at HKIA.
To sum up, despite the effective promulgation of international standards, the related effectiveness of the implementation has varied greatly from airport to airport. Many variables, either independently or collectively can be the cause of failure. This paper concentrated only on how the introduction of corporate governance (particularly the three key principles) improved the way HKIA conducted business in relation to Aviation Security forever. The change to good corporate governance did not occur over night and has taken almost 15 years for effective management oversight, company ethics and accountability to become enshrined into the company philosophy. The data reviewed from HKIA, however, does suggest that the transformation has been dramatic and effective, showing that, when emphasized and enshrined into corporate culture, good Corporate Governance will increase the likelihood of success in the on-going fight against unlawful interference against civil aviation. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/184356 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Chau, Foo-cheong, Sidney., 周富祥. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B5025456X |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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