The Dusseldorf airport’s CEO and new President of the German Airport Association has sparked a debate about passenger profiling

…he wanted to introduce passenger profiling in German airports to fight terrorism. The system would be similar to that used in Israel, where passengers are categorized as high or low risk according to their age, sex, ethnic background and other criteria.

“In this way, the security systems can be more effectively used to benefit all those involved,” [Christophe] Blume, who will become president of the German Airport Association (ADV) in January, told the German Newspaper Rheinische Post on Tuesday.

Although one might take this only at face value and wonder about the philosophical issues at stake with profiling, Blume’s profile brings up another point.

He signed a 10-year 200 million dollar outsourcing contract in 2005 that gave 70% ownership of IT operations to SITA.

I suspect, again from his executive profile, that he was sold by SITA on their “iBorders Advance Passenger Processing” system:

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs was particularly interested in a proactive solution, which would enable them to analyze and pre-screen travellers before they arrived. If necessary, this would allow them to stop any unauthorized or ‘undesirable’ visitors at the point of departure – thereby avoiding any expenses associated with processing and repatriating these visitors.

His announcement is thus a way for him to say he will work to expand his financial relationship with them by bringing in another SITA project.

Maybe if he or SITA said something about the system increasing security or making flights safer I would be more encouraged. Instead I wonder if their focus on terms like expenses, efficiency and effectiveness is really a way of saying they want to get their hands on the money that has been going to other technology vendors and firms.

I won’t even bother to try and understand why he finds South Africa and Israel the appropriate models for German national security.