Time to act to stop long waits at airport security as they may harm local business

10.16.53am GMT Tue 14th Nov 2006

Newtownabbey Alliance Councillor, Tom Campbell

Alliance Party Spokesperson, Cllr Tom Campbell has called on government, airports and airlines to hire more security staff to stop long waits at airports. He said that these long waits might negatively affect local businesses because they deter businesses executives from making regular journeys to Northern Ireland.

Newtownabbey Councillor Tom Campbell said: "Government, in consultation with airlines and airports, must do something to cut long wait at airport security. More funding must be invested in recruiting more security staff to help alleviate this problem.

"Those who travel to Northern Ireland on business may be deterred from doing so because of the large amount of time spent at security gates. This makes the normally short trips to and from London very time consuming.

"This might result in less business executives coming to Northern Ireland and therefore less investment coming into the region.

"There is also a knock-on effect for flights which can result in them being delayed due to these long waits at security.

"I commend the hard work done by security staff at airports in Northern Ireland and I believe that more staff must be provided to ease the burden on these security workers."

ENDS