UK. STI – Airline Sales & Services Ltd, consultants in inflight sales security and secure transport services, together with ASD Holdings Ltd, designers and manufacturers of high security locking and sealing systems to the intermodal transport industry, have announced a pioneering joint venture to market AirGuard and Sentinel locking seals to the aviation sector.
STI Director Paul Lacy told The Moodie Report: “After years of development and trials we are delighted to announce the launch of the Airguard and Sentinel security systems, designed to provide all of the investigative information the industry and authorities will require when dealing with duty free and onboard theft.”
AirGuard & Sentinel are approved by UK Customs as an alternative to replace both conventional plastic and metal seals as well as the padlocks traditionally used to protect the movement and transportation of high-value duty free goods as part of the supply chain.
Both products are “˜smart’ security devices that record all operations and will detect any attempt to effect surreptitious access to the vehicle or container they are protecting.
Data recorded by the locking seals can be downloaded by infra-red link and passed to office computers programmed with ASD DataStore for onward transmission to responsible managers anywhere in the world. The security features include protection against electronic spike attack, magnetic attacks and forced door entry.
ASD Holdings Managing Director Ian Winter said: “We are delighted to work with STI on this joint venture because it allows ASD to offer a complete security package to airlines and supply chain companies.
“Sentinel is widely used at airports in the UK and Europe and has recently been approved for use at airports in the USA by TSA Homeland Security. AirGuard has attracted considerable interest from airlines in Europe and we expect the first devices to be in operation very soon.”
Lacy added: “AirGuard and Sentinel represent a major breakthrough in airline and airport security, as it is by far the most advanced lock and seal system that has ever been developed for the industry.
“When investigating thefts from inflight retail carts and canisters, my teams will have access to information that was previously almost impossible to obtain. We will now know at what stage of the equipment’s journey an incident took place, who was in control of it, and therefore who might be responsible.”
The AirGuard system is also easily affordable and can cost as little as £0.08 (US$0.12) per day to operate, regardless of how many times the seal is used. The device is a sealed unit tested to over 500,000 operations and with a life expectancy equal to that of a cart or canister. A simple adaption to each cart or box door will provide a seal and lock that gives ten years of tamper evident protection and information to deter theft.
“Imagine the day when the sourcing, ordering, signing-in, storing, recording, signing out and re-ordering of seals and padlocks are a thing of the past,” said Lacy.
“The cost of that resource has never been factored into the overall cost of securing carts on a daily basis. The environmental benefit of this seal also gives us a huge advantage over existing plastic and metal ones as they are only used once and then discarded.”
Both companies will continue to operate independently but will cooperate closely when offering security solutions to the aviation industry. Lacy and Winter said that there is a natural synergy between their respective businesses and that the joint venture will strengthen and improve the services they are able to offer customers.
For more information please contact:
Paul Lacy on +44 (0)1403 864 801
E-mail: paul@dutyfreesecurity.com
Web: www.dutyfreesecurity.com
Ian Winter on +44 (0)1928 583 630
E-mail: ian.winter@asd-holdings.com
Web: www.asd-holdings.com
