As the tourist season approaches and in the context of a Vigipirate plan at the maximum "emergency attack" level, "serious failures" in the screening of baggage and passengers at Ajaccio airport have been noted since “December 2022” during three successive audit missions of the services of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), alerted the prefect of Corsica, Amaury de Saint-Quentin on Tuesday April 23 in a press release.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Corsica is the manager of airports on the Isle of Beauty, and it awarded the company SAP SUR the public contract for this airport security. “During the last inspection carried out in January 2024, no significant improvement was observed”, according to the prefect, specifying that “more than half of the failures noted eighteen months earlier, including the most serious, had not been the subject of any concrete corrective action.”
“These findings do not make it possible to guarantee users of Ajaccio airport the minimum level of security ensured in all airports,” he regrets, pointing out “the context of raising the Vigipirate plan to its level the highest “emergency attack” on March 25.”
“Recurring failures”
“To urgently remedy these recurring failures”, the CCI “was placed under reinforced surveillance by the DGAC, on April 9, 2024, immediately allowing the increase in State resources dedicated to monitoring the proper implementation security missions", adds the prefect who had taken "coercive measures" towards the CCI on March 29. “These measures reinforce the priority given to security controls on the airport’s ancillary activities, in order to guarantee their proper execution,” he explains.
This public airport security contract, valued at 11 million euros, is at the heart of legal proceedings. On February 6, the director of the company SAP SUR was indicted for “organized gang extortion, criminal conspiracy and concealment of favoritism” by an investigating magistrate of the specialized interregional jurisdiction of Marseille.
The investigation began after the complaint, at the end of March 2023, from a manager of the company Samsic Airport, the only other bidder for the call for tenders, who declared having received a threatening call just before going to Corsica . Samsic then withdrew its file from the call for tenders.
