Originally Posted by Irish Steve
there was NO PHOTO / NAME ID CHECK AT THE AIRSIDE ENTRANCE where they scanned the boarding card to make sure it was valid. FUNDAMENTAL
GREAT HOLE in the system, which will have to be followed up with DAA and other agencies. All they did was scan the boarding card to make sure it was in the system, but they didn't validate the photo ID to make sure that they matched. That is a FUNDAMENTAL MASSIVE SCREW UP with enormous security implications
Oh for goodness sake ! If you travel domestic on BA inside the UK there is no photo-id check at all. Nor on domestic flights in many other European countries either. They manage quite fine without it.
And the only reason airlines in the UK ask for your passport on International flights is to check it is valid as otherwise they can be fined for delivering pax without the right documentation to destination airports.
I know in the US they ask you about 50 times in the airport to show your photo ID. But it is not necessary to ape US ideas in security at every stage.
LCCs like Ryanair and Easyjet in the UK check photo IDs purely as a commercial revenue protection measure to stop businesses buying their very cheap tickets a month ahead and then issuing them on the day to whichever of their staff happen to be travelling, when fares may be 50 times (literally) as much. It is NOT for security.