Im sure this has been said before but please let me indulge and purge some frustration that has been building up over the last few months !
Airport security is a joke and 95% of the changes they've made post Sept 11 are purely for show.
Security at checkiin is the biggest joke, there is absolutely no standardisation between different airports or even between staff at the same airport. A comprehensive half day course and you get a badge and an attitude to match. The security industry by its very nature attracts the wrong sort of people for this work.
Propperly trained (and paid) people should be manning the gates making sure people arent bringing weapons airside.
My biggest gripe though was with access to the GA apron at a large regional airport recently. After meeting my pax in the terminal, I had to go through the metal detectors and x-ray machines (which I have no problems with - although making me take my shoes and socks off was a bit much) then wait 25 minutes for the friggin AIRPORT MANAGER to escort me and my pax out of the terminal to my aircraft !. The irony being that if I was serious about getting airside i could have walked outside and made a few cuts to the 6' cyclone fence...... terrorists do have access to sidecutters !!
At another international airport it took me nearly 40 minutes to get LAND SIDE !. I could have just flowin in in my chieftan filled to MTOW with daisy cutters etc and they wouldnt have known yet their security is so tight that I cant even get OFF the aerodrome !!
The govt etc are obviously not serious about airport security.... every measure Ive seen so far I have managed to find a way around with very little thought..... any half decent terrorist could surely do much better than myself.
Get serious about airport security or go home and let us all get on with our jobs.
I feel a lot better now.