The attacks to the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and over the Pennsylvania skies on Sept. 11, 2001 caused thousands of deaths and will forever be a pivotal moment in United States history. In the aftermath of the attacks, the safety Americans had taken for granted was no longer guaranteed. Key changes were made in the air travel industry to heighten security and so that travelers would once again feel safe when flying.
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Changes to airport security first took place at the legislative level in the months following 9/11. On Nov. 19, 2001, President Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which led to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The TSA was formed to consolidate Department of Transportation airport security efforts. Another key legislative change was the federal mandate for the implementation of passenger security screening in all commercial airports and the requirement that all checked baggage be screened. The execution of these national scale efforts required the hiring of 158 federal security directors nationwide who were charged with managing security operations at more than 400 commercial airports in the United States.
Before 9/11, commercial passengers were allowed to carry knives with blades 4 four inches or less when flying, though rat poison, sparklers, and hairspray were forbidden. Because terrorists used box cutters and knives in the hijacking attacks of September 11th, post-9/11 regulations forbid cutting instruments of any size along with cutlery, not only on planes, but also in airport terminals. Airports have also adopted methods for detecting the presence of explosives in baggage, including manually searching luggage and using specialized bomb-detecting systems or bomb-sniffing dogs. Under these new measures, passengers are only allowed forks and spoons for meals and must spend more time at the baggage check-in desk.
Heightened security efforts following Sept. 11, 2001, have also necessitated more spending by the nation's commercial airports. This spending has primarily gone to employing security staff. While there were roughly 16,200 security screeners employed at U.S. commercial airports before 9/11, after the creation of the TSA, 56,000 new screeners were hired. In this same period, the wage earned by screeners more than doubled, going from an average wage of $7 per hour to $15. Under TSA changes, all screeners were offered benefits for the first time and given more than 100 hours of training instead of the standard 12 hours available before 9/11. By the end of 2003, the TSA had reduced the national screener workforce to 45,300 screeners.
While the main goal of increased airport security measures following 9/11 has been to ensure passenger safety, there have also been some undesired inconveniences. Airlines now advise domestic passengers to arrive at airports up to two hours before flight takeoff. Security checkpoints can also be a hassle for passengers, especially when they are randomly chosen for additional screening of their person or carry-on baggage. Still, despite these inconveniences, the heightened security efforts have been largely successful in calming passenger safety fears. According to a Boeing survey on post-9/11 airport security, roughly 91 percent of passengers feel air travel is safe.
