Anybody who has travelled by air over the last three years has experienced more delays, stress and frustration than ever before. Post 9/11, the airline security industry has boomed. Trying to make sure that we travel safely means that catching an aircraft is no longer a case of turning up and taking off. But Mike Souter, group communications manager for Advanced Travel Partners International (ATPI) questions whether the wide range of measures put in place actually make any difference at all to our safety:

My first regular air travel was on the British Airways� Shuttle between London and Glasgow. The airline promised that if you simply turned up, there would be a seat for you. And, indeed, the airline did manage sometimes to provide a backup aircraft if the scheduled one was overbooked.

One of the joys of the Shuttle was that you could arrive at the airport within minutes of departure, buy your ticket there and then, and step on board.

Now, of course, it�s a changed world. Everything has to be processed through security. Hold luggage, hand luggage and the passenger.

/more 12 February 2004

2/ The finger of suspicion points at us almost as soon as we reach the check-in desk. �Have you packed the bag yourself?� �Could anyone have interfered with it.

Of course, that line of questioning � and indeed many of the other security measures which have been put in place � are designed more to reassure us that the authorities really are doing everything they can to make air travel safe, than to actually make any real difference.

After all, how many cases have their been of a terrorist, subjected to such routine � and some would say banal - questions by a hard-pressed member of the check-in staff who have admitted at that point that they are carrying weapons?

Not one, of course.

The authorities would say that staff are trained to spot people who look sheepish or guilty when they answer the questions untruthfully. But you and I know that the pressure is so much on them to get the traveller processed that, even if they do ask the questions, they are weighed down with the myriad of other procedures they have to complete. So they would be hard-pressed so spot the person with the hung head, flushed cheeks and sweating brow who had indeed been approached on the Heathrow Express by a bearded man and asked if they would mind carrying a Kalashnikov on board for them.

/more 3/ So, having queued for half an hour simply to announce our intention to fly, we wait in line again to go through security.

There used to be a time when this took just a moment. Now there are mazes to go through, zigzags of lines to negotiate. No longer is it a case of simply putting your bag on the x-ray machine. Now, we often have to take overcoats off. And, just because one man was caught once with explosives in his trainers, at some airports we all have to suffer the indignity of removing our shoes.

And how many of us have seen a little old lady, hopping on her charter for her ten days on the Costa del Sol, having her nail file confiscated because she had packed her sponge bag in her carry on luggage?

I bet there are warehouses stashed to the ceilings with such illegal contraband. I have seen figures that suggest half a million items a month are confiscated. The security people would say, of course, that removing such potential weaponry reduces the danger for the rest of us. But that same little old lady then purchases her glass bottle of gin, a broken shard of which would surely be a much more lethal weapon than her flimsy little Boots� nail file?

Post 9/11, US and UK carriers have replaced all cutlery on board with plastic versions. The newly designed knives and forks included in Concorde�s last refurbishment never saw in-flight service as a result. /more 4/

But, I put this to you. As you cut through your piece of steak with your plastic knife, consider whether such a blade would inflict just as much damage to a man�s eyes as a metal one. A completely valid point that was put to me by a senior British Airways cabin services director.

And, in any case, just as a glass bottle could be a lethal weapon, so could a glass. So could a sharpened hinge from a briefcase. The list is endless.

Once again, it�s the huge majority of us who are suffering because some bureaucrat somewhere decided that we�d all feel much safer if we didn�t have stainless steel cutlery on the tray in front of us. And, therefore, much less prone to have evil intentions when on board.

And, if we really did want to do something, how could they stop us? A slightly built � �height and weight in proportion� member of the cabin crew has enough trouble trying to calm down overweight businessmen who have drunk too much.

Recently, there was a case in the USA, where parcels containing suspect material had been placed on board two South West Airline 737�s. They weren�t bombs; just someone making the point that airside security was lax.

/more

5/

The last thing I want to do is to discourage anyone from flying. Statistics tell us that it�s by far the safest way of travelling.

But the point is that the poor old traveller is being conned. The security industry is making billions - three billion dollars a year in the US alone � on persuading us that we are safer.

Who pays the bill? Us. Who has to wait in line? You and I. Who benefits from all of this? Security firms certainly and, somewhat perversely, the terrorist.

And who really really thinks we are safer as a result of all the security measures.

Nobody.

(998 words)

NOTE TO EDITORS: For further information, Email mike.souter@atpi.com or Tel/Fax: 00 34 952 599348 Mobile: 00 34 678035656. Mailing address: Mike Souter, ATPI, PO Box 3, Wymondham, Norfolk NR18 0UT

ATPISF 12 February 2004