In response to today’s announcement by the Government that the designation order on airport Restricted Zone (RZ) passes is to be lifted Jim McAuslan (General Secretary) on behalf of the British Airline Pilots’ Association, said: “This is a sensible change of approach and one which we welcome. BALPA has always had aviation security high on its agenda and has a number of ideas on how we can improve airport security which we will be pursuing with the Secretary of State for Transport. But we have never seen the national ID card as an improvement to security and we are glad that the new Home Secretary has listened to BALPA.’

The designation order would have required pilots to firstly have a National ID card before they could apply for the RZ pass that enables them to get to their aircraft. The consequence of this would have been that individual pilots would have been forced to have a National ID card or automatically lose their job. This disadvantaged pilots who would be compelled to apply for an ID card whilst it would have been voluntary for all other citizens: Jim McAuslan said: “BALPA will be stressing to its members the new voluntary nature of the scheme. We will also be monitoring airport operators to ensure they stick to the new rules and don’t bring in compulsion by the back door.”

BBC News - Climbdown over airport ID cards