Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is operating under tighter security following a June 28 terrorist attack at Istanbul, Turkey’s Ataturk Airport that killed at least 40 people and injured more than 200.
Three attackers targeted the arrivals area of the airport and one reportedly fired a Kalashnikov.
In the ensuing confusion, the two other attackers were able to get past a security checkpoint.
Police fired shots to try to stop them but the attackers each blew themselves up in different parts of the airport.
“We have an increased security presence at the airport, and we are doing a few add things to heighten awareness,” Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) vice-president Don Ehrenholz told Business in Vancouver.
“We are doing everything that we believe is required by Transport Canada and a little bit more to ensure the safety and security of passengers and employees at YVR.”
He acknowledged that airports have increasingly become targets for terrorists.
The Istanbul attack comes more than three months after a March 22 attack in Brussels, Belgium, in which two separate suicide bombers exploded bombs that were hidden in large suitcases.
That attack was co-ordinated with an explosion in that city’s Maalbeek metro station.
A heightened alert for potential terrorist activity spurred officials at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to evacuate terminals over what they called a “suspicious package” at the EgyptAir check-in.
Ehrenholz said he did not want to “tip our hand to any would-be bad guys” so he would not detail the enhanced security that YVR now has in place.
Ataturk Airport has X-ray machines that scan people who enter terminals. The attackers had been trying to get to a security checkpoint to a main terminal before they blew themselves up.
YVR has yet to institute that kind of security measure, and Ehrenholz said the VAA has no plans to install similar machines “at this stage.”
Ataturk Airport also has limited security checks for vehicles that come near the terminals.
Again, there are no such plans for that security measure at YVR, Ehrenholz said.
“At this stage, there are no threats that would indicate that we need to do [security checks of cars that come near terminals],” he said.
“We have other things that we do.”
A multi-divisional RCMP detachment is based at YVR, and the VAA hires private security guards to patrol areas.
