Air travel has become safer but only at a great price, says the International Air Transport Association, which is among groups marking the 10^th anniversary of 9-11 with a plan to take more risks in return for reducing the numbing costs of security.

The worldwide airline group IATA was far from alone in urging various reforms as the date of the 9-11 tragedy approached.

At the same time, there are increasing reports of rising traveler dissatisfaction with the nation’s air security system.

 “Travelers' tolerance and confidence that they are being adequately protected has thinned over what many of them consider silly and ineffective security measures designed to obscure glaring weaknesses in a well-funded system that has had 10 years to get it right,” says the Chicago Tribune.

The newspaper adds that passengers say they are tired of seeing children or elderly people being patted down by federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners, and they become angry that the least risky individuals are being pulled out of line and searched.

The total price tag was estimated at US$7.4 billion a year, said IATA’s report on “The Impact of September 11, 2001 on Aviation.”

“Aviation is more secure today than in 2001. But this has come at a great price in terms of passenger convenience and industry costs," said Tony Tyler, IATA director general and chief executive.
 

Tyler called for governments to embrace a “risk-based approach to security screening” and to remove “the hassle that comes between check-in and boarding at many airports.”
 

IATA reiterated the key points of its “Checkpoint of the Future” plan, which combines two elements: classification of passengers through risk assessment, and advanced screening technology.
 

Passengers at airports would be directed to one of three lanes, depending on the information scanned from their passport or ticket: “known travellers,” who have registered and completed background checks; “normal passengers,” who will be sent through a standard security lane; and “enhanced security” travellers, about whom little advance information is available or who are on a government checklist.
 

Roger Dow, US Travel Association president, says the entire past decade has been a “lost decade” for travel.

“No industry was perhaps impacted more by 9/11 than the travel industry,” said Dow, speaking at a press conference last month. “It changed the way Americans travel.”

While global long-haul travel grew 40 percent from 2000 to 2010, overseas travel to the US rose just 2 percent. Consequently, the U.S. share of the global travel market dropped from 17 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2010.

Dow urged that US security be maintained but his association has also urged the implementation of three initiatives .

Reduce traveler wait times. “Travelers deserve predictability. The Transportation Security Administration should employ technology and resources to process travelers through checkpoints [in less than] 10 minutes at all major airports, including at peak times,” according to the U.S. Travel document that outlines these principles in a report called  “2011-2012: Building the World’s Most Secure and Efficient Travel System.”

Improve customer service. “The high customer-service standards and best practices of the hospitality industry” should be used to train TSA agents and customs officers. Customer comments and complaints should be tracked, and metrics should be developed to monitor improvement.

Eliminate a one-size-fits-all approach to security. Replace it with a system that focuses resources on the highest-risk passengers. This means establishing a nationwide Trusted Traveler program that allows US citizens to submit biometric and background data to offer an alternative security check, expanding the Visa Waiver Program to include more countries, streamlining the visa renewal process by waiving the interview requirement, and expanding the Global Entry program.

By David Wilkening