Air travel may be easier after 20 years

NEW DELHI: It would take over two decades before air travel becomes easy and convenient in the United States, as post 9/11 turned it into a nightmare with high-tech security and scrutiny.
Many factors would have to come together before passengers will be able to walk from the curb to the gate and then fly without delay, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey said.These include new technologies and coordination between federal agencies.
"All of this can be done by 2025. We want to develop a system that is absolutely seamless and efficient," Blakey was quoted in a report by the Sun-Sentinel.
Passengers generally spend more than an hour in check-in and security lines for domestic flights in the US, the report said adding planes frequently wait 30 minutes or more to take off from major hubs.
At the top of the list to ease the drudgery of air travel in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era would be high-tech security that would scrutinize a passenger from the time he or she enters an airport, Blakey said.
For instance, travelers might walk through a machine that would quickly test passengers and their belongings for explosive particles. But at least passengers could keep walking.
"It would be door-to-door, curb-to-curb, really, security," she said. "It''s where you make the security transparent."
To avoid delays in the air and improve safety, Blakey said new technologies already are being employed. One such system, she said, permits an airliner to home in on any point on Earth and land in zero-visibility weather conditions.
But she said more systems are needed to avoid weather delays, implement a new generation of air traffic control and allow more flights to safely share the skies.
The discovery of a loaded handgun concealed in a child''s teddy bear in Orlando International airport has underscored the alertness of Transportation Security Administration screeners.
According to James M Loy, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, the recent incident also carries lessons about the need to screen all travellers, even 10-year-olds and why passengers should never attempt to take items received from strangers through the security checkpoint.
Meanwhile, TSA is set to collect more data on passengers and then classify each passenger''s risk status as red, yellow, or green.
Passengers rated "red" would be detained by airport security, while "yellow" travelers -- by one estimate as many as 73 million passengers annually -- would face extra bag searches and pat-downs. "Green" travelers would board flights without further searches or scrutiny.
Admiral Loy along with Nuala O''Connor Kelly, chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security in a statement last week said that the changes to the screening system were "based on comments and meetings from countless citizens, security experts, privacy advocates, and many of the same organizations."
The new plan grew out of concerns that the current screening system prompts regular "false positives," causing thousands of low-threat travelers with the same name as suspects to be flagged as security risks.