"Calif Bill" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"JohnH" wrote in message
...


The private security companies were not being held to any standards.
Who
controlled them? I would have had no problems with the government
becoming
the
contracting officer and monitoring the security companies. Of course,
this
would
not have required doubling the strength of the AFGE.


"Who controlled them?" They were controlled by the airlines. Remember,
before 9/11 how often you heard, in the news, "....airlines argue that
passengers won't put up with being inconvenienced by more stringent
security
checks"???



And the airlines were correct. Look at travel. Airline's are hurting as
the amount of travel has fallen drastically. The economy is part of it,
but
the fact that it takes 3-4 hours at the airport a lot of the time has
caused
people to drive to weekend vacations, etc. My daughters both live in the
Los Angeles area, and I have experienced my daughter driving from LA to
arrive at the house the same time as wife and I arrived back from flying.
It is 12 hours driving and $75 in gas vs 10 hours and $150 in airfair for
the round trip. Sometimes we fly, but lots of people are driving.

Maybe the economy. But, I'd love to see actual data to indicate that people
won't fly because of the security check process. Most of the people I've
spoken to who won't fly are more concerned with the fact that before 9/11,
there were already a host of problems with airline safety, and not just from
terrorism. 9/11 was the icing on the cake. Before that, we already had to
deal with design errors, excessive traffic & delays, outdated traffic
control systems, and crew members with attitude problems because of
seemingly endless labor disputes.