Jersey Airport

Reliable monitoring of the CP line.

Jersey Airport had a security challenge as the airport’s ‘critical part’ (CP) sits inside of the airport boundary, surrounded by ‘airside’ regions operating a less stringent security standard. Aircraft must be able to travel in and out of the CP, so a fence cannot be erected, yet the CP must be protected from persons or vehicles entering it that have not been screened to a compliant standard.

Reliably monitoring the CP boundary is a challenge for many airports. Unlike the outer perimeter, which can be protected by a simple security fence, aircraft and security are constantly crossing the CP boundary throughout each day. There is a trade-off between keeping freedom of movement for people and heightening security measures to limit access.

The problem lies in distinguishing between permitted bodies and unauthorised personnel entering the zone. Relying on CCTV or manned surveillance posts – where security teams would need to constantly monitor movement around the area – proves a costly solution, with the inevitable risk of machine or human error, especially at night and in poor weather conditions. This critical part of the airfield was previously monitored by manned guards, but the Department for Transport required that a response was initiated within three minutes following a breach. The existing number of patrol officers meant it was impossible to cover all of the areas and guarantee the response time without significantly increasing the number of officers. This would have been costly and inefficient.

A number of surveillance technologies such as video analysis were trialled, but proved ineffective for some requirements such as reliability and ease of use. A fully automated wide area surveillance system was chosen, which resulted in significant operational benefits and reduced on-going costs.