Turnover among Canada's air passenger screeners is high-- 73 percent at one airport last year, says a report by the Canadian Air Transport Authority.

 

Almost one-quarter of the officers who screened passengers before flights at Canada's eight busiest airports left their jobs in 2009-10, says a report by the CATSA. That's above the authority's target of 4.9 percent. The numbers ranged from lows of nine percent in Toronto and 13 percent in Ottawa to 55 percent in Edmonton and 73 percent in Calgary. They included people who quit as well as firings, layoffs, transfers, retirements and deaths.

 

In a report on the Air India disaster, former Supreme Court justice John Major found that while security at Canadian airports had improved over the decades, "the human dimension of aviation security remains a concern." Major found the air security authority had "encountered significant difficulties" in recruiting and retaining its approximately 6,800 screening personnel. Major made 10 recommendations -- including better training -- aimed at long-lasting solutions that would provide the "highest quality of screening" at Canadian airports.