Harold Zinke

I travel on business on a regular basis and think I will be driving alot more in the future. Much of my airline travel in the past is to places 200-500 miles away. With the expected delays and hassles expected at the airport from now on I wonder how many people will just go ahead and drive instead.

No way am I saying that the security is not needed but I wonder if the security related delays will be worth the trouble for the individual traveler who is trying to determine if the trip is really necessary and if so, what is the best way to get somewhere.. Instead of flying from Washington to Raleigh, for example and sitting in the airport for three hours answering a number of security questions waiting for each flight that will be inspected by the police after it has been loaded, it may be easier to just drive down there.

What impact will this have on our economy and the airline industry? When it is no longer speedy to get places by place many people will just not travel, or if they do, drive.

Please do not tell me it is better to be safe than sorry, I agree. My question has to do with where the fine line is between safety and ease and time.

Liam

In light of economic belt-tightening, I am sure your company would probably profit by having you drive/train-it shorter distances.

Re: flying - Evidently security at US airports and on US airlines is not as thorough as we had thought. I read somewhere (perhaps on this board?) that Israeli planes never get hijacked. I did a mental check and realized that whoever said this is probably right (I have no recollection of an Israeli plane even ever crashing, yet I would imagine that El Al would be a major target).

El Al is doing something right and US carriers should follow suit. Hassles from delays? In hindsight of this week's events - who cares about delays?!

MHS

Are as many El Al flights late/delayed or off schedule as **pick our best USA airline**? Does anyone know what the on-time percentage of El Al flights is?

Are flyers on El Al allowed to use plastic knives to butter their rolls? Can they leave their ship-through baggage curb-side?

Think El Al is a business first, an airline concerned about security second & they most likely manage both reasonable on-time service and profit without slack security.

Fred

United, American and Delta all have had substantial fines because of security violations. An investigation into Argenbright Security which handles airport security in a numer of airports revealed a lack of backgound checks on security employees and inadequate training. The FAA has known about the weaknesses in airport security for 10 years and until now has done nothing.

Considering the delays etc. on short hops it will probably be faster to drive. IMO, this chain of events will drastically alter the way the airlines do business and the way Americans fly.

Howard

If MHS is being sarcastic about El Al, hhis sarcasm is misguided. Our airlines would have been wise to follow El Al's safety procedures. Among other things, I believe that El Al has at least one armed marshall (or whatever he/she is called) on each plane. Plus passengers go through a series of security checks. Its record speaks for itself!

Pam

I for one can only hope and pray that the new requirements include a ban on carry-on luggage (and other assorted junk), at least at the airports I use most. If anything good can possibly come from this tragedy, this is it.

Paige

In answer to Harold's original question, yes, I will drive more if costs and time needed to board go up. Living in Okla. we don't get many direct flights, usually have to fly to DFW or another hub to change planes. This certainly adds to the time it takes to travel by air. I live 45 min. from the airport to start with.

My most frequent vacation spot is Colorado which is a 12 hour drive. When you consider 2 hours pre-flight for travel to airport and check in, a 45 min flight to DFW, one hour connection/layover time, then two hour flight from DFW to Denver or Gunnison, then car rental and drive time to Vail or Crested Butte you have at least seven to eight hours to fly. I'd much rather drive!

Joanne

Certainly, increased airline checkin procedures and delays will increase auto and Amtrak traffic between New York and both Boston and Washington.

MHS

MHS was not being sarcastic about El Al -- any "sarcasm" read into her statement was toward USA FAA & airlines. Like the previous poster, I think El Al is doing something better and not making its passengers suffer in the process.

Our favorite US "vacation spot" is the entire length of the East Coast -- FL. Drive? For a 1 week vacation -- no way. If airlines increase costs substantially (and they will use this incident as an excuse to increase fares), we'll stay home -- put the $$ in the bank and let the tourist industry feel the pinch since we are not unusual people and feel that many many others will have the same reaction. Sensible security can be had without much additional cost -- tax dollars can fund better border controls and federal marshals too for that matter. And why not use Army personnel (collection paychecks already in the federal budget) to man airport security? Certainly, we for two, would rather see our military tax dollars used that way then for "peace keeping" in some gas millionaires' desert or any of the other places we have troups stationed.

anon

Another factor in your fly/drive decision may be the price of gas. Some of the proposed US responses to this nightmare could impact it greatly. (Of course airfares would be effected as well.) At least used SUVs will be cheap!

S

My in-laws live 650 miles away. It's an 11-12 hour drive. Before the children were born, we flew. Now we drive. Why? If you consider front door to front door, there's only a 3-4 hour difference. From our front door to the airport, park, go inside, check in 30+ min before scheduled departure time, go to the gate, wait, often up to a 30 minute delay, board, fly to Atlanta, 60+ layover, flight to the in-laws, wait for the baggage, go to the rental car agency, get the car, drive almost an hour across town - - > when you add it all up, the cost is MUCH greater to fly, we only save a few hours, and the hassles (and potential hassles) are much greater.

scigirl

I will still fly - I live in Hawaii, if I want to get off island I pretty much have to fly. However, being a bit of an positive thinker, I suspect that the new security measures won't = terrible delays. I suspect there will be bad delays at first, because the system has to be put in place and people have to learn what to expect (and what they can and can not carry with them, etc.). I thinking limiting gate access to ticketed passengers will help reduce delays because it will decrease the number of people who have to be processed through security. In Hawaii we already don't have much (any?) curbside check-in due to agricultural security, so that won't cause much of a change for me. Does anyone really show up at the airport only 20 or 30 minutes before their flight? To me arriving an hour earlier than I might otherwise have to (e.g. 2 hours rather than 1 hour before the flight) doesn't seem like that big of a deal.