Small airport communities could be in jeopardy of losing on-demand cargo service if the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires all cargo operators, both major and regional carriers, to adhere to a single level of security, warned an association representing regional air cargo operators.

Regional cargo carriers are asking TSA to take a risk-based management approach to strengthening air cargo security, thereby separating major and regional carriers by size of aircraft, rather than consolidating all cargo operators and forcing them to follow identical rules.

"We represent the segment of the industry that is unique and requires attention that's appropriate to that side of the industry," said Stan Bernstein, president of the Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA). "We have not seen any evidence that on-demand cargo flights pose the same level of threat that a large jet transport does. There's just nothing there to support that."

RACCA represents more than 50 air cargo carriers that primarily use smaller aircraft to provide on-demand services to smaller communities.

"When one of our airplanes, like a Cessna Caribbean, which is a single-engine turboprop, pulls into Plattsburg, N.Y., at 4 a.m., there's literally no one else at the airport. That airplane is delivering time-sensitive material that's going to be delivered by 10:30 a.m.," Bernstein explained.

"The legal community, to the construction community, to the manufacturing community, to the business community, has learned to rely on that 10:30 a.m. guarantee. If we keep putting obstacles in place that are not practical and are not solution-oriented, all they're going to do is destroy the service level we've all become accustomed to for a long time now," he cautioned.

"All these communities would be essentially excluded from overnight documents and packages," Bernstein told CRAN. "Many of our members carry pharmaceuticals that are not readily available. Many of our operators carry canceled checks for the Federal Reserve. There's a wide array of carriers. A number of our carriers are also mail carriers."

Bernstein illustrated the regional cargo carriers' issues in an Oct. 25 letter to Elaine Dezenski, TSA director of cargo security policy. Bernstein said four key issues separate the regional carriers from major carriers, such as United Parcel Service [NYSE: UPS], FedEx [Nasdaq: FEDEX] and DHL [PNK: DEPOF.PK].

First, there is no evidence that on-demand cargo flights pose the same security risk that major jet transport or freighter flights do. Bernstein said: "It is virtually impossible for someone to stow away" onboard a small aircraft with two crewmembers and loose-loaded [non-containerized] cargo."

Second, the largest aircraft in the regional air cargo market must follow TSA's rule for performing criminal history checks on crewmembers and restricting access to airport cargo facilities.

Third, many small airports that serve on-demand carriers are not regulated by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) FAR 139 certification for airports serving scheduled/unscheduled flights with more than 30 passengers. In essence, these airports are hubs for general aviation and private aircraft.

"Many of the airports that we serve are not regularly staffed, they have very limited facilities and, of course, very limited finances," Bernstein said in an interview. "Yet, if they were asked to comply with requirements of a large jet airport, it would simply result in the end of cargo service to those airports."

Fourth, on-demand carriers operate on narrow profit margins and the economics of this market would not support increased security costs.

"Our profit margins are remarkably thin," Bernstein stated. "I heard a comment that if we increase the amount of costs for smaller airports that the airport authority would be charged with paying for that. Well, we both know that when the airport authority has to start paying for increased levels of security, the first place they pass [the cost] on to is the operator."

RACCA would like to see the Oct. 1 air cargo recommendations made by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) split into two groups, Bernstein said (CRAN, Oct. 20). Major commercial and cargo operators that serve large airports should follow ASAC recommendations, which were geared toward them, while regional cargo carriers serving smaller markets should follow guidelines applied for smaller aircraft and facilities, he said.

"Larger urban jetports are truly in need of high levels of security," he said. "But we've never seen a threat from a Cessna Caribbean, which if it had passengers would have eight or nine passengers on it. You could hardly expect the same security rules that a Northwest Airlines [Nasdaq: NWAC] 747 in Chicago would have to implement to be the same for that little Cessna. We're just talking about complete opposite ends of the spectrum."

Realistically, regional cargo carriers serving smaller markets should be compared to general aviation rather than any other aspect of aviation, Bernstein said. "When we tie down an aircraft at night, there's usually a Cessna 172 on one side and a Piper Cherokee on the other side," he said.

Applying the ASAC recommendations to all large and small cargo operators in a "one-size fits all" approach would be misguided because the freight activities of large aircraft at major airports have little relation to regional cargo operations, Bernstein said.

"We can't paint this industry with a giant brush and expect everybody to comply with the same thing starting at the top and working down to the bottom," Bernstein said. "We have to get the government to recognize that ... nobody opposes security in this environment, but we have to do it in a reasonable and rational way that makes sense."

>>Contact: Stan Bernstein, RACCA, 508-778-7788.<<