Aussies win detection deal

An Australian company will provide bomb detection systems for New Zealand airports.

Aviation Security Service general manager Mark Everitt said the service had signed a deal with a Sydney company for the systems, which would be in place in New Zealand's seven international airports by next October.

The systems would be able to automatically detect explosive substances as baggage was taken from the passenger terminal to an aircraft.

The equipment was a necessary part of an international aviation convention signed after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Mr Everitt said the Convention on International Civil Aviation required all 188 signatory countries to screen outgoing baggage on all international flights by the start of 2006.

Mr Everitt said Sydney-based Smiths Detection was chosen because it could provide an integrated system that best met New Zealand's needs.

- NZPA