London Gatwick Airport is working closely with the Department for Transport (DfT) to develop the best solutions for airport security, following the announcement last week by the Secretary of State, Lord Adonis.

These will include the extended use of explosive trace detection, greater use of explosive detection trained police dogs and exploring options for the introduction of body scanners, in line with DfT guidance.

In addition, Gatwick Airport and Sussex Police are working jointly to develop a targeted approach to enhancing passenger and staff screening as part of the overall security regime.

The initiative will involve both agencies sharing information and adopting selective, targeted enhanced screening and searching for some passengers and airport staff.

A proportion of this will be random, but the vast majority will be targeted profiling as well as looking at passenger behaviour.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s Chief Executive Officer said:  “Security will always be our number one priority.  The systems and processes at Gatwick must be multi-layered, some of which are visible to passengers, some are not.”

Stewart added:  “We will continue to work closely with the Department for Transport and other agencies to ensure we have the most appropriate and innovative security measures at the at the airport.”