Key takeaways
- Security officers often rotate between functions such as screening, access control, vehicle examination, and patrolling, so each function benefits from its own refresh.
- Security training and certification sit inside national aviation security programs worldwide, each with its own approach to keeping skills current.
- The Airport Security Officer Recurrent Training (ASORT) Program follows the security workflow. Its 13 ACI-accredited courses cover access control, screening technology, and searches of baggage, people, vehicles, and aircraft.
Airport security personnel are often required to rotate among many different functions. In fact, a single shift can take a security officer from the X-ray screen to a vehicle search to a perimeter patrol, each requiring its own equipment, its own procedure, and specific details that need to be exactly right.
Airports Council International (ACI) World projects passenger traffic to reach 18.9 billion by 2047, nearly double the 9.8 billion recorded in 2025, which means the checkpoints, gates, and search points where officers work will serve more people, bags, and vehicles. So, while initial training is essential in order to gain proficiency in the role, recurrent training is what keeps that knowledge current as equipment, procedures, and requirements change.
A team wider than the checkpoint
Airport security is not the responsibility of one team only but a shared responsibility as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Its awareness guidance reaches employees of airport operators, aircraft operators, and civil aviation authorities, along with ground handling agents, baggage loaders, and cabin cleaners who have unescorted access to aircraft.
For an airport, that means contracted providers as well as internal staff. In the UK, for example, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) guidance covers screening entities that certify their own teams, use external providers, or supply screeners to others.
One global standard, many national programs
The baseline for aviation security is set by ICAO it through Annex 17 and each of its 193 Member States then turns it into rules of its own. While its audits also treat personnel qualifications and training as an essential part of how a State oversees security, on the ground however, processes can look very different from place to place.
From systems asking for annual testing, to others for re-certification after a year or two, or pairing formal assessment with ongoing training on new equipment and emerging requirements, the common thread is that an officer’s skills are expected to be refreshed and shown over time in order to meet regulatory requirements and maintain high-level of security across the entire airport.
Keeping skills sharp across functions
A 2025 meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin found that, without use, half of skill gains can fade within about 6.5 months. The same review identified intermittent opportunities to perform a task as one of the factors that shape how quickly skills decay. For security teams, this matters most for tasks that are critical but rarely performed.
According to ICAO, a strong security culture is what truly improves the effectiveness of the measures in place and recurrent training supports that culture, because the knowledge behind each procedure stays fresh from shift to shift and from terminal to terminal.
Not only does recurrent training support keeping knowledge and skills up to date, it also builds confidence. An officer who has recently rehearsed a procedure knows what to do when an alarm sounds or an unexpected item appears. This confidence translates to reactivity which, when it comes to security, can be the key difference between mitigated risks and critical incidents.
A program that follows the security workflow
The Airport Security Officer Recurrent Training (ASORT) Program is designed for personnel who have completed initial training and need a recurrent program to maintain their competences. It brings together 13 ACI-accredited courses, 13 hours in total, and follows the critical tasks that are part of the role: an overview of security measures from access control to monitoring and surveillance, screening technology from X-ray inspection of cabin baggage, hold baggage, and cargo to metal detection, body scanners, and Explosive Trace Detection, and search procedures for sterile areas, baggage, people, vehicles, and aircraft.
Participants can expect to be able to explain how security measures protect people, aircraft, facilities, and operations, apply the right screening and search procedures, recognize alarms, anomalies, and prohibited items, and respond appropriately when a concern arises. Each course can be taken on its own or combined, so a team can refresh the equipment it uses while a new supervisor covers the full set.
Airport campus licensing allows an airport to roll out the program to its security personnel quickly, easily, and cost effectively. The program is delivered through Klayo or the airport’s local learning management system and the courses can be customized to meet local requirements. Each completed course also adds to the individual’s Skills Passport in My Klayo, alongside the rest of their training record.
Airport security rests on people who know the procedures and the equipment well enough to act on them calmly. Recurrent training is how that knowledge stays current as the airport, the technology, and the requirements change.