“Mobility is the true test of a supply system”.
Capt. Liddell Hart, Thoughts on War (1944)
Delivering cargo and shipments by air, despite requiring significant financial outlays, modern technologies, advanced management methods, and special forms of personnel training, is the most dynamically developing branch of transport. Despite constantly growing competition, aviation continuously maintains its high and secure position. The primary influence on this state of affairs is determined by specific factors that constitute the attractiveness of services provided using it. Undoubtedly, the most important include the speed and security of delivered cargo. Speed and security are decisive factors primarily in the context of air transport of: animals, perishable goods, specialized spare parts, diplomatic mail, hazardous materials, and during rescue or humanitarian operations. These are also factors that positively influence the fundamental element of commercial processes, namely financial profit.
This situation has forced managers of international airports, which serve as the basis for the transport of cargo and shipments, to build and constantly improve the efficiency of the cargo infrastructure located on their premises. The necessity for such actions also exists in our country, especially in the context of the projected increase in the use of air transport by such commercial and economic powers as China and India.
Currently, there are 12 international airports operating in our country. The main one is the Warsaw Chopin Airport, with the largest cargo terminal in Poland, operating 24 hours a day. Cargo terminals and warehouses, being part of international airports, are equivalents of passenger terminals with the fundamental difference that they are used by “passengers” of a different category, namely cargo, shipments, and mail. Meanwhile, the primary goals of these facilities are storing and preparing freight and mail for further transport by air.
Airport cargo infrastructure consists essentially of two parts: external and internal. The external part includes, among other things, maneuvering and parking areas where wheeled transport vehicles operate, as well as loading/unloading ramps and external warehouses. Moving cargo and shipments in this part is carried out using specialized loading and handling equipment, operated by professionally trained airport or freight forwarding company employees. In the internal part, the transport of properly cleared cargo, shipments, and mail takes place from internal cargo warehouses to aircraft decks and vice versa. These tasks are carried out using various types of containers, forklifts, and other types of wheeled vehicles, as well as trailers. In the office and administrative part of the cargo terminal, there are rooms where airport staff, including Airport Security Services and freight forwarding and transport companies, perform their official and work duties, as well as rooms for state services and inspections, such as the Border Guard (SG), Customs Service, or the Border Veterinary Inspectorate. Unfortunately, due to the role played by airports, including within international civil and military air transport, they have become a classic target for asymmetric actions, including those carried out in the form of terrorist bomb attacks. Providing them with protection is one of the priority tasks of various types of state institutions and services.
To date, the most tragic terrorist action, which began a new era in international relations, including leading to the two largest recent military operations and gigantic losses in the sphere of economy, trade, and business, were the attacks of September 11, 2001, carried out using civil aviation components on targets located on the territory of the United States. This crime also led to qualitatively new forms of anti-terrorist protection of international airports, including the cargo infrastructure that is part of them. Analyzing modern terrorist threats to processes inherent in air logistics, occurring both in the commercial and non-commercial spheres, the protection of cargo terminals and warehouses used for these purposes at airports has absolutely necessitated the use of a systemic approach. Within this approach, the primary task is to determine the nature of threats that may affect the freedom and efficiency of airport cargo infrastructure. Currently, regarding threats resulting from intentional human action aimed at destructive effects, it can be assumed that the primary one is Islamic terrorism.
In the case of Poland, there are several sources generating a terrorist threat to international civil aviation, including air logistics. Probably the primary one is our country’s involvement in the activities of the international anti-terrorist coalition, including the participation of the Polish Armed Forces (SZ RP) alongside the United States in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2011.