Leading Through Change Webinar Series: Do’s and Don’ts of Security
By: Mariela Morales and Stacey Porter August 21, 2020 Security
Ashley Davis, from PunchAlert and Stacey Porter, Owner of Porter Global Security, LLC continued their webinar series: Leading Through Change. During this webinar, airport vulnerabilities were discussed as well as how they could be mitigated to ensure the safety of the airport and the traveling public. Tips and suggestions were also provided for everyone traveling during this pandemic.
#airport #safety #risk #travel #preventionisbetterthancure
Link to Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C98UkBfroXQ&t=27s
Travel Do’s and Don’ts
Traveling can be a real hassle at times, from having to arrive at the airport a day before your flight to spending the next three hours in a 17-inch seat (if you’re lucky) at 38,000 feet high. Now that health and sanitation are in the back of everybody’s mind, post-pandemic traveling is even more stressful. In order to provide some relief, Ashley Davis and Stacey Porter provided their audience with helpful travel tips and suggestions in the Do’s and Don’ts of Security webinar. There were five crucial topics highlighted:
Choosing the Best Airline
Don’t: Choose airlines (such as United and American) that are selling all the seats they can. If you have options, choose airlines that are still blocking middle seats and limiting passenger capacity, which will give you an easy leg up on social distancing.
Do: Look for airlines that are still limiting the number of people on each flight. Not all airlines are created equal when it comes to seat spacing. Some airlines (Delta, JetBlue, Alaska, and Southwest) among them are commendable.
Watching the Seating Chart
Don’t: Skip out on space. Once you choose your airline, take a close look at the seating chart. If you’re able, pick a seat with as much room around it as possible, ideally, with an open space next to it. If you cannot easily see the seat map for your route, check Seat Guru; which provides layouts and reviews of all seats available on flights. If you don’t have your ideal seat, set up an account with Expert Flyer’s Seat Alerts, which will ping you if your desired spot—i.e, window or aisle—becomes available.
Do: Avoid sitting where the entertainment box is located. You only have to make this mistake once to know those few extra inches of storage and stretching space make a huge difference. Entertainment boxes take up the entire under-seat storage area.
Paying for Extra Space
Don’t: Keep the basic economy option. This is also a good time to skip the basic economy options that assign you a seat at random; since you won’t be able to change your position unless a gate agent takes pity on you.
Do: Upgrade your position on the plane (if you’ve been saving points or have extra travel budget). If you can swing business class where you have an isolated pod seating, go for it, but even premium economy, extra legroom seats, or positions near the front of the plane will give you more space apart from other passengers.
Utilizing Technology
Don’t: Fly on any aircraft that does not require passengers to wear PPE’s. If you’re uncomfortable, don’t fly on an aircraft that is filled to capacity.
Do: Use FlySafe! With a quick click of your computer keys, you can find out every recent policy your carrier is offering by using FlySafe. The free browser extension from FlyPilota shows travelers what safety precautions are being taken on every flight and allows you to review them all in one place. Once you download it, you’ll be able to see detailed star ratings including mask requirements, seat blocking, and capacity capping. You can also learn if there are surgical-grade HEPA filters used on the flight, if PPE is provided, info on cabin sanitation, and if there are flexible policies for flight changes and cancellations.
“Use FlySafe! With a quick click of your computer keys, you can find out every recent policy your carrier is offering…”
Flying Off-Peak
Don’t: Fly in the morning or early evening. This is the most popular time of day and this is also when flights can be expected to be the most crowded.
Do: Pick a non-peak time (these usually correspond to when flights are cheapest as well); flights in the middle of the day tend to be less crowded than morning or evening flights. Or try the middle of the night flights; not only are these often less crowded, but passengers will often be sleeping, which means fewer people walking in the aisles or conversing with each other.
Airport Security Do’s and Don’ts
During this interactive section of the webinar, Stacey Porter provided his expertise on physical security by explaining the do’s and don’ts of airport security through a series of airport photos. Detailed recommendations were made in order to mitigate vulnerabilities as well as best practices that our nation’s airports are facing. Below are a few safety issues to look out for:
Finders Safety Keepers
Do: Have bollards along the pickup area; protecting entry and exit doors from vehicles penetrating the terminal.
Don’t: Have a luggage display in close proximity to the terminal glass structure! Anyone can introduce a bag filled with explosives to the luggage display.
The Rotating Belt
Do: Clear unattended bags off of the conveyor belts. This will eliminate any possibility of bag theft.
Do: Have reliable cameras. Each baggage claim conveyor belt can be viewed by pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras.
Don’t: Place trash receptacles along the pillars at the airport.
Keep It Moving
Do: Ensure airport traffic officers are advising vehicles to move in a timely manner.
Do: Use blast-resistant trash receptacles.
Don’t: Allow vehicles to park along the terminal frontage in the red-zone unless they are authorized vehicles.
Shine a Light on It!
Do: Use signage properly along the terminal frontage.
Do: Ensure this area is properly checked on a regular basis.
Do: Ensure this area is well lit during the evening hours.
Don’t: Leave areas unattended! Bags or suspicious items can be easily hidden in this area. Shrubs should be trimmed to a level where cameras can easily view this area.
It is definitely a time of uncertainty and people want to ensure their safety is a priority. The airline industry has been working extremely hard by ensuring all passengers traveling on a specific aircraft are adhering to their policies and procedures as it relates to COVID-19. We hope to get back to some sense of normalcy soon, but until then, we hope these tips help all airport safety experts and those who occasionally sit in a 17-inch seat waiting for their peanuts bag.
Links to Resources
- Conducting Risk/ Threat Assessments: https://www.porterglobalsecurity.net/
- Community Communication-The Future of Safety: https://punchalert.com/
- Global Crisis Ready Community Support Network: http://crisisreadycommunity.com/
- FlySafe: https://www.flypilota.com/
- August Travel Restrictions: https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/covid-19-in-august-your-guide-to-us-state-travel-restrictions.html
- States Requiring Out-of-State Travelers to Quarantine: https://people.com/health/states-requiring-out-of-state-travelers-quarantine-coronavirus
Making the Check-In Experience Even Safer:
