Almost coinciding with the tenth anniversary of 9/11, this week London has been hosting the Transport Security Expo. Here, topics such as the security problems we all face at airports have been discussed. How long might it be, for example, before we don’t have to empty our pockets of coins, take belts and shoes off unpack laptops and only carry liquids in small containers?

In Copenhagen this week is a three day conference (Passenger Terminal Expo) where airport and airline suppliers sell their wares. Theoretically what makes it easier for them should make it easier for the passenger to get through what has become, for many of us, the bane of travel. It used to be check-in queues. Now it is security and having to walk or be bussed, miles to where the aircraft is parked. So is there anything at this conference that offers hope for us?

This time last week the Chairman of British Airways, Martin Broughton, was headline news with his comments about unnecessary security and kowtowing to US requirements. (CD-Traveller 28th October.) Today the news is of how terrorists have become sophisticated enough to create devices which evaded checking at Doha, Dubai and East Midlands airports. Initially, it looked as though the problem lay with security for cargo flights only but now it transpires that the package went on at least two passenger flights from Sanaa in Yemen to Doha in Qatar and then from Doha to Dubai as unaccompanied baggage. Needless to say security is being reviewed and there have been calls to tighten security at least for cargo shipments.
Will Broughton’s comments now be quietly ignored?

On the face of it, the use of bodyscanners to deter terrorists or, to put it another way, to make us feel that we are as protected as possible when we fly, is something that few would argue with. But all is not simple and there are many justifiable objections to them, not the least of which is privacy. And health risks. And whether the machines work.

Twice I flew from Heathrow’s terminal 1 this week. Twice I had breakfast as I was on early flights. On each occasion I had breakfast, it was after I had cleared security since you’re never quite sure how long it might take. And I had breakfast in two different restaurants, neither of which would set your gastronomic juices on fire. But that rumbling is for another day.
In both restaurants, I was given stainless steel cutlery

This view comes not from anyone in the UK but from two German trades unions. According to Der Spiegel’s online news service,(www.spiegel.de) the head of the German police union and the head of the pilots union have both called for bans on the sale of liquids like perfume and alcohol because of their potentially lethal use. Alcohol is inflammable and exists in perfumes as well as the bottles of spirits we buy.
The police union chief, Rainer Wendt, claims that once a passenger clears security checks and gets airside, everything a terrorist needs to build a contraption can be found in the duty free and restaurant areas.
True or not, this ban is unlikely to happen.

Following the attempted attack on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit it will come as no surprise to any of you that’s security at airports and on planes has been increased.
You can expect to take longer going through security as more hand searches are carried out. Don’t be surprised when you gate to the actual gate to find that a hand pat security check may also take place. Instead of it happening on just a few flights, as is done at the present, you can expect it to occur more often particularly on flights going to the US.

Not being a bedtime reader of the magazine Superconductor Science and Technology, I would have missed a story completely without the BBC catching it and running the story about Hilbert spectroscopy. Without being scientific, let me summarise the jist of the piece.

We’ve known for some time that security systems will toughen. Now we have helpful guidance from the European Union on what will be expected.

I am grateful to the Datanomy Googlegroup and Jeremy Phillips in particular for guidance on how the EU sees the subject of fingerprints.

Last week, the New York Times said that the familiar walk through metal scanners that are seen at airports anywhere in the world will be replaced in the US. What will succeed it will be body imaging devices which amount to a virtual strip search. This has been tested for some time and it is [...]

Queues at airline check-ins seem to be diminishing. Being able to check-in online or use one of the airport machines has helped certain airlines to cut queues. (Charter airlines seem to still have the problem). From check-in at least!Now they have some delays where you drop off your hold luggage but that also doesn’t [...]