Gentlemen;
Let us not confuse patriotism with effective security, I often read in these lines that being american or pro american in security policies is akin to being safe.
Wrong!
As someone rightly mentionned in an earlier thread, the 9-11 attacks started on american soil and not in Europe, where security despite what some may think of is much stricter in effective terms than security in the US.
Now everyone seems to have a wwonderfull go at the way we do things on this side of the Atlantic, rest assured everyone that security at European airports and cities is much better than anywhere in the US.
Which brings about another question, who is this security bash really serving?
It is destroying the industry at its seams and the ones creating these problems are really the US, everyone else in the industry is managing their security to KPIs that are much higher than any US carrier despite the appearances, troublesome check-in procedures and inconvenience caused to every pax and of course airport congestion.
European airports have got their procedures so well oiled that they are actually looking for other looming problems today like unruly and offloadable material (probably irrated from a US flight)
It still brings me back to the same question: Whose interest is this serving?
Certainly not the passengers, and certainly not the carriers and certainly not the airport authorities.
American airports remain the unsafest hubs in the world and their actions against other carriers are only an indication that they cannot compete in a service industry that has eveolved beyond the comprehensive psychological means of the honourable senator from Kentuky, so his parade is to impose what would otherwise be unexcusable in a market economy: Threat by fear.
I live in the Middle East and perhaps US authorities should come here to look at how we keep everything under control, no guns, no drugs and relatively orderly terminals.
It is also perhaps time to question why these threats seem to threaten only one axis and not the other, perhaps as citizens of the world some wshould question the presence and illegality of US troops abroad, the palestine conflicts etc..... Maybe if logic was used by these policy makers, all this would not be happening.... Just a thought!!!!
