Dual-view X-ray scanner put into operation

Air freight news

As of April 19, 2012, O.T.S.ASTRACON operates X-ray security equipment approved by the German Federal Aviation Authority (LBA) on its own premises for the inspection of pallet and unit load screening. Our appropriately trained and approved aviation security control personnel can thus hand over airfreight shipments with the status “secured” directly to airlines.

We invest

O.T.S ASTRACON, by investing in its own X-Ray X-ray system as a cargo inspection system, is one of only a few air cargo providers that can perform such cargo inspections by X-ray technology directly in its own facility.

Our customers profit

For your airfreight, the new dual-view X-ray unit results in significant time savings, also with regard to EU Regulation 185/2010. We expect that the share of “unsafe” cargo requiring extensive checks at the airport will increase significantly from 2013 onwards. The resulting freight backlog could lead to considerable delays – we want to take precautions against this at an early stage:

• Agreed delivery dates and very tight timeframes can be met even better
• handling can be carried out completely in-house and from a single source
• Your shipment can be delivered to the airlines on the same day with “secured” status
• there are significant improvements in interface control
• Certified by the German Federal Aviation Authority (LBA) as a Regulated Agent (RegB) for the secure handling of air cargo
• we can establish the SPX security status

Context: EU Regulation 185/2010

The new EU regulation changes the relationship between forwarder and shipper of air cargo. Until now, the latter only had to sign a security declaration with their forwarding agent in order to be able to ship their air freight as so-called “known consignors (Bekannter Versender)” without additional controls. As of now, certification by the German Federal Aviation Authority (LBA) is required for this. The regulation already went into effect on April 29, 2010, but the approximately 65,000 “known consignors” at that time will continue to be tolerated during a three-year transition period. In April 2013, they will lose their status. Experts expect that many companies will not have themselves certified as “known consignors” and will only have their “unsafe” freight labeled as “secured” at the airport through appropriate controls.