The  airline industry has been all of a flurry for the last few days as a result of opinions voiced by British Airways chairman Martin Broughton on the current state of our global airport security checks. Dismissing some of the checks as ‘completely redundant’, Mr Broughton has not sugar-coated his opinions on the issue, and has suggested that checks like the removal of shoes could be abandoned as they potentially cause more problems than they prevent.

Whilst he has maintained that ‘no-one wants weaker security’, he has also criticised the way in which the US has increased tenfold their security checks on incoming flights without doing the same for its own domestic services.

The US increased security in January after an alleged bomb plot. It brought in stricter screening regulations, with body searches and hand luggage checks for passengers arriving from the fourteen nations decided by the authorities to be a security risk.

Mr Broughton has commented on the way that every time there is a new security scare, security measures just get  piled on with no real regulation or international coherance.

Which, given recent terrorism related acts of violence (not least 9/11), you would think would be an obvious and justified reaction that has the interests of the customers at heart. However, Mr Broughton believes that;

“We need to step back and have a look at the whole situation. Standards change fairly regularly and this puts pressure on airports and airlines. We need to decide what we are trying to do and how best to do it.”

The main beneficiary of these cutbacks is apparently us, the passengers. Shedding unnecessary security measures, he feels, would make our flying experience more pleasant without compromising our safety.

So what do you think?  Do you feel safer when you fly because of long winded security measures? Or do you think they are a waste of your time and an exercise in terrorism paranoia?

Or perhaps, like us, you’ve not made up your mind yet. Have a look at the full article on the Guardian website and let us know what you think.

Image source: www.telegraph.co.uk