JFC Travel Blog

The US Transport Security Administration (TSA) has created a blog in an attempt to justify their ineffective security theatre. They have a small number of bloggers writing articles and moderating the comments. Although they seem to be avoiding most of the big questions they still appear to be allowing most criticism in their comments. A quick look through the site shows how unpopular they have become with the travelling public. I look at Flyertalk’s security forum will show you why.

Glasgow Airport is currently closed due to a burning car being driven into the main terminal building. At the moment it is not known whether this is an isolated incident, it’s possibly connected to the alleged car bombs that were uncovered in London yesterday.

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As reported by the UK Department for Transport, Spain is introducing Advance Passenger Information (API) reporting on all flights arriving from outside the Schengen area from today (19 June 2007). Basically this means that certain items of personal information including passport number and date of birth are passed to the Spanish authorities before take off, this information will usually be collected either at the check-in desk or online. The reason listed for this rule is for law enforcement policies. However, it’s so easy to avoid this information collection that this new procedure is just a total waste of time.

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(via FlyerTalk - original (German))

Airport operators want relaxation of strict rules for the transport of liquids in hand luggage.

The President of the Association of German Airports (ADV), Michael Eggenschwiler, called for the EU Commission to “make security rules reasonable and understandable”. He also announced a new structure of landing fees based on emissions.

“Passengers cannot understand why they have to throw away liquids purchased at airports outside of the EU, when they see identical bottles being sold after security checks. Now that 7 months have passed since the introduction of the new rules, the EU Commission should review them to see if they brought any actual improvements in security. If there is no improvement, the EU should have the courage to abolish these rules.

At the Frankfurt airport alone, the new security measures result in up to 3 tonnes of additional garbage per day. Mr. Eggenschwiler demanded for the state to take over all security-related expenses instead of making airport operators and travelers bear the cost, just as it is the case with any other forms of transport.

(ADV also claims credit for delaying the intruduction of new hand luggage size limits for 12 months)

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KLM’s CEO Peter Hartman talks about the inconvenience caused to passengers due to the changes in airport security. As far as I know he’s the first airline CEO to speak out about recent security measures.

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Anyone who has travelled through Europe, the US or one of a growing number of other countries has probably noticed the latest addition in our defences against terrorists and that’s the war on water.

Ever since the UK was the subject of an alleged terrorist plot to blow up airlines with liquid explosives we’ve suffered from rules that do nothing to prevent terrorism but just make life difficult for the normal traveller.

First of all, an xray can not detect explosives, there’s no way for a security officer to know whether your 100ml bottles of liquids are what it says on the label. So they say that’s why we have to use small containers so the quantity is too low to cause damage, but people can just combine their allowances when they get through security. But then they say that’s why the allowance applies to the bottle size and not just to its contents (e.g. you can’t carry 50ml of liquid in a 500ml bottle), not having a larger container makes combining the amounts difficult, however you’re allowed to buy larger drinks bottles past security in the shops so they can just buy a bottle of water when they get through and empty it.

So even if liquids are a threat this will not make any difference whatsoever. There’s too many ways around it. All it does is divert the screeners attention away from looking for more serious items in luggage.

Instead of investing to improve our security the governments would rather that their screeners spent so much time checking that people’s shampoo bottle is the right size rather than improving security to realistic levels. It’s disappointing that more and more countries are following suit.