Boeing and El Al security venture

THE US aircraft builder Boeing is hoping to team up with Israel's El Al, long the world's most security conscious airline, to set up a joint firm specialising in aviation security. They have signed a memorandum of understanding, under which they will hold exclusive talks for 60 days about ways in which they could turn their combined expertise into a global business.

If they agree terms, the joint venture would include developing technology, making products, designing systems and procedures and training personnel.

For Boeing, which is axing 20,000 jobs and reducing plane-building in the wake of the 11 September attacks in the US, the move springs from the hope better security could help restore growth in air travel.

El Al has been in the vanguard of airline security for almost three decades. Its aircraft are fitted with armoured doors between cockpit and cabin and armed security men travel on its planes. Other airlines, including British Airways, have decided to introduce lockable cockpit doors.

Meanwhile, Boeing's European arch-rival, Airbus Industrie, is marketing special reinforced doors for its single-aisle jets and working on other aircraft security improvements.

But the talks between Boeing and El Al are designed to create something more far reaching: a business that could market its expertise and products to airlines, airports and governments.

Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said making flying as safe as possible is the overriding challenge for the aviation industry. 'El Al's indisputable leadership in security practices, combined with the resources and intellectual capital that we at Boeing possess about all aspects of the air transport system, could create a formidable source of knowledge for the whole industry,' he said.