Pilots Approve New Airport Boycott Rules

Airline pilots from 60 countries agreed Tuesday to streamline procedures for boycotting countries that support international terrorism and airports that fail to provide adequate security.

The decision, made at the annual conference of the International Federation of Airline Pilots Assns., authorized a six-member committee of senior officers from the group to declare an immediate boycott of a country when a clear link with terrorist activities is established.

Previously, any such action involved cumbersome consultation with the associations from all member countries.

“We will seek to stop airline flights to and from any country that encourages terrorism against civil aviation or harbors such terrorists,” said Reginald Smith, the federation’s president.

Doubts Raised

But the need for what Smith called “definitive proof” of terrorist involvement appears to raise some doubt about the impact of the decision. Few hijackings or aircraft attacks have been traced to specific governments.

Smith said the new procedure will not be retroactive and will not lead to any action against Libya.

The pilots also agreed overwhelmingly to give the six-member committee the authority to boycott any airport found to have inadequate security. An initial boycott of 24 hours would be invoked if security problems are not rectified within seven days. This could be followed by an indefinite ban, Smith said.

At present, Beirut is the only airport boycotted by member associations.

Government Support

Federation officials admitted that member associations capable of responding to a boycott call are probably restricted to the United States and Western Europe. In other parts of the world, it would be difficult for pilots to comply without strong support from their governments.

About 60% to 65% of the world’s commercial airline traffic is on North American and West European carriers, a federation official said. The associations of only four Arab countries--Egypt, Sudan, Kuwait and Lebanon--are affiliated with the federation.

In the past, even Western governments have been reluctant to invoke sanctions against countries linked to hijackings. For example, since the seven major industrial democracies agreed in 1978 to withdraw landing rights from the airlines of any country failing to extradite or punish hijackers, the only action taken has been against Afghanistan’s Ariana Airlines.

“There’s no guarantee to this policy, but we are going to try it,” said Michael Clark, chairman of the British Airline Pilots Assn. “We’re saying we can’t stand here and do nothing while these acts continue. It’s our way of saying it must stop.”