Long before Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas day 2009, travelling overseas has become a real trial of endurance. Ever since 911 people flying from the UK have had to put up with longer queues than anywhere else in the world, particularly at Heathrow.
When you arrive at the security point your are herded, by the thousand, like mindless sheep to the slaughter. Often those doing the herding are rude and not exactly the brightest people. Regardless of whether you are a middle aged woman with children or an old man everyone is treated as a suspected terrorist. Often hand luggage gets sifted through with ponderous detail.
Queues at our airports are likely to get even longer since the failed terrorist attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Judging by the TV interviews with travellers following the incident most of us appear resigned to the fact that delays are likely to get even longer at airports.
Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that new scanning equipment will be introduced within 3 weeks time. Johnson said that all UK airports must have new “explosion trace detection equipment” by the end of the year, and said that BAA had begun training its staff in behavioural analysis techniques. The question is – could these new scanners have prevented Umar Farouk from getting on board? The amount of explosive hidden in his underpants would have been difficult to detect even with a scanner.
Some have argued that there should be a stronger emphasis on social profiling based on gender, age, ethnic background and race. Take the case of Umar Farouk. Here was a young black man coming from a country of predominantly Muslim origin, who’s own father had warned officials of his possible intentions. Added to this, Abdulmutallab got on a plane bound for the United States with only a one way ticket and no checked-in luggage, yet alarm bells failed to go off.
If we only use ethnicity to weed out those who should be scrutinised in detail at airports you would surely get cries of injustice by civil liberties groups. However, profiling people by ethnicity has been a success in Israel for many years. The United States is the only other country to have implemented this thus far.
But even without the problem of terrorism it seems the UK continues to be a hostage to industrial action and the weather. December 2009 saw British Airways staff threatening a twelve day strike over the Christmas period. If the strike had gone ahead it would have lead to major chaos at Heathrow and probably spelt the end of BA. Luckily for BA they managed to get a legal action that declared the strike illegal.
The cold weather also played a part in bringing the UK transport system to a halt in December 2009. With snowfall throughout the country and record temperature lows flights, trains and roads all suffered. Even the Channel Tunnel came to a halt because of the “wrong type of snow” getting clogged in the engine vents.
So what about the future? You can’t do much about the weather but you can avoid strikes and cut the threat of terrorism by using private charter flights.Certainly using private business jets and regional airports means you don’t have hassle of the long queues. Security is also tighter because you are likely to know the people on your flight.