There are a bunch of tradeoffs involved. For starters, you pretty much eliminate a portion of the industry with every twenty minutes of additional wait you impose, because you cut into the time advantage of flying for short distances. (Note it isn't the average wait that matters in this case, but the amount of time you have to allocate for the worst case) For short haul markets with sort of one hour stage lengths, you rapidly hit the point where driving's just as fast, and less hassle. A related effect, one that's hit me personally is consolidating trips. I've pretty much had to merge a few trips, as much due to the added time I'd have to spend as anything else. (A lot of cities which were reachcable from NY as a day trip now no longer allow enough work time to make day trips work. A fair number of cities where you could get in two fairly real work days in a two night trip now need three days to get in the same work. Stringing together trips is harder when every hop consumes much more of a working day. Last flight out hasn't changed time, but time you have to arrive at to get on that flight has, and worse, in some markets, last flight out is 2 hours earlier. So, instead of doing two or three overnights over the course of two months, I'll end up doing one three or four night trip six months apart. For added sport, a lot of people (myself included) don't see very much of a correlation between the longer lines and actual, effective improvements in security. If I can see a dozen ways to still down a plane without getting on one, I'm not convinced that the extra twenty minutes I have to allocate to when checking in a bag makes me any safer from somone who wants to bomb an airplane. My own take is I'll go along with what it takes to fly when it makes economic sense for me to fly. I'll be happy to do things which actually enhance security, far less happy and far more grudging whan all that's happening is window dressing. I am forced to take into account the time and hassle factor associated with each trip, and it does cut into the total trips I'm likely to take this year. - David On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, www.joepries.com wrote: > Hi Greg, > I dont know how far is too far and how much more security harms the industry, but personally speaking only, i'll submit to whatever im asked to in order to get on a flight. Also i dont have the option of "not flying since 9/11"- i have to be in certain places at certain times and taking a cruiseline to Germany via the Atlantic to the U.K. and then train is not gonna work, neither is driving down to florida round trip from NYC with my wife and 7 month old. > Joe > Greg Newbold <pnewbold@san.rr.com> wrote: Joe and List, > > We shouldn't over-react and must maintain some balance between security > and the traveling public before we kill the airlines, not to mention the > taxpayers. You can provide suppressive levels of security but then you drive > business away. I flew 90K paid miles last year before 9-11 and haven't flown > a mile since. I assure you I am only mildly concerned with terrorism, (I'm > still more conccerned about being killed in a car crash on the way to the > airport), but will not stand in a line for hours for any reason. > The balance has swung against the passenger and thus the airlines have lost > my business for the short term until the government can solve the technology > issues and speed up the process. > An interim solution? Place more security staff on site. We all know long > lines are caused by staff shortfalls rather than security requirements. An > example. If you have 100 passengers and 10 XRay machines, 100 passengers and > 10 shoe-testers, etc the line will move quite rapidly with 2 minutes per > passenger will cost the passenger a maximum wait of 20 minutes. > As the infamous Army Major said about MyTho during the VietNam war... "It > was necessary to destroy the town in order to save it" and I hope we won't > do the same to air travel. > > Greg > > -----Original Message----- > From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of > www.joepries.com > Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 11:36 AM > To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU > Subject: Re: Free background check -do it! > > > EXCELLENT. As an American, an American cognizant of the fact that the > possibility of an airplane being taken over and slammed into a reactor > somewhere on U.S. soil may be in the cards for us, im for whatever measures > the government sees fit- they wanna strip me to my boxers in a side room- do > it, they wanna check my shoes- do it- they wanna look into my background and > see where ive been- do it, they wanna take a sample of my toothpaste to make > sure theres no C4 in the tube- do it. You wanna give me a national identity > card to carry with me at all times- do it. People are out there trying to > kill us- us Americans- us christians, jews, blacks, lationos, chinese, > muslims- it doesnt matter- if you live in america youre game. > Bring it on, im willing to wait longer to board my flight to feel safe with > my wife and baby and fellow americans on board. > > > > > Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT > > SkyOne--The Airline News Channel > To Post message: Skyone@yahoogroups.com > To Subscribe: Skyone-subscribe@yahoogroups.com > To Unsubscribe: Skyone-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > List owner: Skyone-owner@yahoogroups.com > Skyone URL: > http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Skyone > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > > > Joe Pries Commercial Aviation Photography > Serving the airline industry with quality photography > AOL IM AIRLINE72 > http://www.joepries.com > > > --------------------------------- > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Auctions Great stuff seeking new owners! Bid now! >