At Manila's Ninoy Aquino Airport, there is a security check on the road leading to the terminal. At the entrance there is a check of ticket and passport and only those actually travelling are allowed through the door. Once through the door, all baggage is X-rayed and passengers go through a metal detector/hand held wands before proceeding to the check in counters. No one is allowed into the arrivals hall to meet incoming passengers, there is an area across the road where you line up under a sign with the first letter of the surname of the person you are meeting on it.
Third world countries employ this level of security for crime prevention as much as protection from terrorism. Travellers usually have money and valuables on them and make an attractive target for pickpockets and con artists.
An airport attack gives a lot of bang for buck, even an amateur effort is likely to succeed to some degree, and can be undertaken easily at short notice with little planning involved and not much money required. A hijack attempt is most likely to fail and requires a higher grade of terrorist to undertake it in the first place. Any illiterate nutter can be brought into the country and used in a suicide attack.
Karachi, Glasgow, Beijing, Moscow, Madrid, Brussels and now Istanbul.
Are travellers safe? From Istanbul to Glasgow and Brussels - 10 airport attacks that shook the world - Mirror Online